Palliative Care Training for Work in an Austere Environment after a Natural Disaster

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Authors

  • Annekathryn Goodman Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH Global Disaster Response, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
  • Lynn Black Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH Global Disaster Response, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17140/PMHCOJ-4-128

Keywords:

Disaster response, Palliative care training, Triage, Expectant, management

Abstract

Healthcare professionals who work in the disaster field confront many challenges to the care of victims of natural disasters. Disaster responders face destroyed physical infrastructures, scarce supplies, and a limited trained peer group. During a mass casualty event, healthcare responders will encounter disaster victims who are triaged to the “expectant” category of care because either their injuries are not survivable or the resources needed to care for them surpass what is available. Responders have not been traditionally trained to administer palliative care in a disaster setting. This commentary examines the challenges that responders face in caring for dying patients in the field and advocates for basic palliative care training prior to deploying to a disaster.  

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Published

2018-03-23

How to Cite

Annekathryn Goodman, & Lynn Black. (2018). Palliative Care Training for Work in an Austere Environment after a Natural Disaster. Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care, 4(1), 10–13. https://doi.org/10.17140/PMHCOJ-4-128

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2018): Volume 4 Issue 1 2018

Section

Articles

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All content published in Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care (PMHC) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows anyone to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work — including for commercial purposes — provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.