Arlette Morales
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Susan Bell
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Nursing / Nursing
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors: Arlette Morales, Jennifer B. Inloes, Sue Anne Bell
Abstract
Background: Almost 90% of flood-exposed people live in low and middle-income countries. Of the 170 million people worldwide susceptible to floods, 44% are living in Sub-Saharan Africa. In April 2022, a flood disaster displaced 40,000 people and took away the lives of more than 400 people living in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Given the importance of addressing unique disaster-related needs of groups at-risk for flood events, it is crucial to understand how hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal can better serve low-income residents during future disasters. Objective: To evaluate how a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal can improve its disaster plan for floods, and in specific areas of the disaster plan for the benefit of the low-income residents living in KwaZulu-Natal. Methods: The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction guided this project. This qualitative study was composed of 4 focus groups from a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal with a total of 11 registered nurses from the emergency department, intensive care unit, medical acute care, and surgical acute care units, 4 semi-structured interviews with a total of 4 hospital disaster committee members, and a document review of existing hospital disaster policies. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Preliminary results from the disaster committee interviews describe how the persistence of staffing shortages at this hospital and neighboring public hospitals can make treating a large number of patients challenging during a disaster. For example, the external disaster plan states that the hospital provides social workers, however, preliminary focus group results describe how the social workers do not effectively contribute to the emergency department during a disaster. Disaster committee interviews emphasized the challenges the hospital faces in a resource-limited setting for disaster preparedness and response. Conclusions: Our policy recommendations will help minimize the health impacts of future flood disasters in low-income communities from KwaZulu-Natal.
