Running head: CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND NURSING
Contingency Planning and Nursing
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CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND NURSING
Contingency planning is a process that should begin as soon as there is an alert regarding
an impending natural occurrence. It is important for Gillian to respond quickly to the signal and
communicate with its partners early enough to effectively prepare to respond to the stormy
situation safely and within the shortest time possible (Westergaard, 2012). Old preplanning can
prevent or stop incidents from escalating. The hospital’s command system should be activated
early enough to prevent small and preventable incidences from turning into massive emergency
situations that can go out of control (Stahl, 2004). All these preparation events should come
before the blizzard gets stronger. It means that the security lockdown among other preplanning
events should begin as soon as Gillian arrives at the hospital.
There is a lack of sufficient time for preplanning; therefore, one imminent challenge is
the ability to gather all the effects and mechanisms to run all the activities in the hospital over the
blizzard period. There is limited time to collect all the equipment for the entire blizzard period.
Another potential challenge is the failure of system machinery due to the intensity of the storm.
Storms are unpredictable hence they can become stronger than the preplanning team expects ad
escalate to worse levels than expected (Stahl, 2004).. Another challenge during the development
of a contingency plan is that people are always poorly motivated in developing a firm alternative
plan because of too much emotional investment in the initial plan. There is stress as the
alternative plan needs to be thoroughly thought through. The contingency planning is not often
seen as important because there is always a low possibility of crisis (Westergaard, 2012).
All the working staff within the premises should take part in the preplanning event. Every
individual should be allocated tasks so as to reduce the preplanning time. The lesser time for
preparation the better preparation it is for the storm. No individual in the hospital premises
CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND NURSING
should be left out of the development plan. Failure to involve all the people within the hospital
might be a weakness if the situation escalates and there is a need for more support. The
development plan should also include partners from outside the premises. Because they could
offer help in case the situation goes out of hand and cannot be controlled by the people within the
buildings (Westergaard, 2012).
The contingency plan should be implemented as soon as normal work operations change.
In this instance, as soon as the storm begins to show is effects it is wise to apply the contingency
plan. The contingency plan is always implemented as soon as the initial plan fails to operate
efficiently. All contingency plans should be implemented as soon as there is an alert regarding an
imminent crisis (Stahl, 2004).
Leaders in this instance should acknowledge the previous contingency plan and its
effectiveness as well as its failures. The primary objective of considering the previous
contingency plan is to ensure that the weaknesses of the previous program are corrected. It is
wise to assess the training results and undertake necessary changes to ensure that there is a
limited probability for mistakes. The leaders should revise the plan regularly especially in
instances of technological, operational or personnel alterations. The program must be audited
periodically and not forgetting considering the risks to the business and preparing for the same
(Stahl, 2004). The efforts towards controlling the risks to the hospital and its operations should
be well analyzed. Gillian should ultimately recommend changes to the contingency plan if
necessary to ensure the accuracy of the program.
The nursing team will assess the leadership team based on the values and principles of
nursing. The contingency leadership team should conduct their policy and strictly rely on the
aspect of patient care during the emergency. The development team should consider the delicate
CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND NURSING
situation of patients and plan towards avoiding a situation of inconvenience to the nursing team
and the patients in the facility. The leadership team will be evaluated based on their leadership
approaches and the abilities of the members of their team (Westergaard, 2012). The relationship
among the members of the leadership team determines their effectiveness as well as the trust of
the nursing team. The manner in which the leadership team allocates its tasks determines their
measure of maturity and their skills and methods to meet the requirement of patient care. The
leadership team should involve all the stakeholders within the health care facility to ensure all
the necessary demands of the contingency plan are in place. The contingency plan should
also suit the operations as well as the objectives of nursing (Stahl, 2004). The involvement of all
the personnel within and without the installation confirms that the leadership team and the plan
can be trusted and is active to the benefit of the health care facility and patient care. The
leadership team will also be evaluated based on their methods of operation. The methods of
operation should be in agreement with the code of nursing and patient care.
CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND NURSING
References
Direct patient care during an acute disaster: Chasing the will-o-the-wisp. (2005). BioMed
Central.
Stahl, M. (2004). Encyclopedia of health care management. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage
Publications.
Westergaard, J. (n.d.). Contingency Planning: Preparation of Contingency Plans. Zoonoses and
Public Health, 42-49.