From Flu Wiki 2

Forum: How to Work Without an Infrastructure

Thinlina02 December 2006, 03:34

http://tinyurl.com/y7xdkf

How to work without an infrastructure?

Jason Irwing from New Orleans was helping individual humans and working as a health care provider after the hurricane Katrina during Aug 2005. He literally lived through Katrina disaster as a health care worker. In the Avian Flu Symposium on Nov 22nd 2006 he asked about H5N1 planning: “The number of employees that you were expecting to come to work - granted over this long period of rumours spreading ‘how do I catch this?’, misconceptions,… In our area, we had a lot of folks from the outside of the area that wanted to come in. But the folks that were locals had a lot of other problems: they didn’t know if their house was still standing, they didn’t know where their family members were and things like that. In those first initial days, when the drama was really great, we had a lot of folks coming in that were locals and able to provide their care. But as those days progressed, they started worrying about their own family members, did we see those numbers decline, and we had that spread [away], until the cavalry actually came and helped us out. When I [now] looked at your numbers [of health care employees estimated to be at work] I thought: ‘What was your thinking behind that, so to assume that so many people would want to return to work under these dire conditions?’”

What actually is our thinking behind the numbers of employees planned to come to work under extreme dire conditions of a probable highly pathogenic pandemic in a society where the infrastructure probably at least partly collapses?

DemFromCT02 December 2006, 07:30

Some of it comes from here and some from the SARS experience in Toronto. But the idea that they will all show is based more on hope than reality.

Grace RN02 December 2006, 07:41

It’s more realsitic to hear from someone who has ‘been there’ then TPTB who sit in an ivory tower. I suspect a huge number of these planners won’t come to work in a pandemic for any amountof money or fame.

IMHO in the beginning of a panflu HCW-from doctors to cleaning staff, who truly care about others and who feel their families are prepared and safe will come in to work. Salt of the earth type people.

As the gent from Katrina showed, as the emergency wore on, their numbers thinned out.But after that, even if it is a moderate pandemic, the calvary won’t be coming.

After that-I don’t know.

Thinlina02 December 2006, 10:21

Grace RN — 02 December 2006, 07:41

“IMHO in the beginning of a panflu HCW-from doctors to cleaning staff, who truly care about others and who feel their families are prepared and safe will come in to work. Salt of the earth type people.”

That sounds true- Probably these are also the people who care of their loves ones so much that when the loved ones ill, won’t go to work but care for them at home.

crfullmoon?06 December 2006, 09:23

…”who feel their families are prepared and safe “…

Sure could be more effort to inform, educate and increase the number of households so preparing - if there was bureaucratic/political will to do so.

Still mostly hear of salt-of-the-earth types being treated like mushroom farms. (and, expected to show up to make tptb’s “plans’ work, until key plan components fail and cause system failures, however many weeks, days or hours that takes to occur, depending on local circumstances and incidents.)

MDMom?10 December 2006, 00:01

HCW are not fools. When they see that well paid administrators, have not spent sufficient money on appropriate safety provisions for them, they will stop showing up for work. This happened in Toronto/ SARS. HCWs will place their families health, above devotion to their patients. During SARS the mainland Chinese had to lock HCWs in the hospitals. During 1918 nurses were kidnapped, because there were insufficient responses to offers of high wages. A few individuals without family responsibilities may think differently. This is why first responders should be high on the priority list for vaccines etc.

MDMom?10 December 2006, 00:01

HCW are not fools. When they see that well paid administrators, have not spent sufficient money on appropriate safety provisions for them, they will stop showing up for work. This happened in Toronto/ SARS. HCWs will place their families health, above devotion to their patients. During SARS the mainland Chinese had to lock HCWs in the hospitals. During 1918 nurses were kidnapped, because there were insufficient responses to offers of high wages. A few individuals without family responsibilities may think differently. This is why first responders should be high on the priority list for vaccines etc.

Retrieved from http://www.fluwikie2.com/index.php?n=Forum.HowToWorkWithoutAnInfrastructure
Page last modified on December 10, 2006, at 12:01 AM