Research Question

The searchable question that guide the research is, “what are the sources and effects of stress to nurses after Hurricane Katrina” With the advance effects of the category 4 storm that negatively impacted economically, socially and environmentally, medical professionals especially nurses were called upon to provide healthcare services to the affected individuals. Despite the fact that all relevant stakeholders expect nurses to offer the desired and expected services, it is worth noting that a time the call is very challenging which is echoed by Hingley that: [Everyday the nurse confronts stark suffering, grief and death as few other people do. Many nursing tasks are mundane and unrewarding. Many are, by normal standards, distasteful and disgusting. Others are often degrading; some are simply frightening] Very few individuals appreciate these important points. In most instances, there are various situations whereby the nurses can do very little especially due to lack of enough resources, inaccessibility, inadequacy in their numbers among other issues.

For instance, failures of machine, power shortages, and lack of medicine leave the nurses with no option but to comfort patient waiting for death if help won’t come on time. According to Dr. Wash, the situation faced by nurses was similar to what wounded soldiers faced in “Gone With the Wind” as nurses were just standing giving patients food and water, he says that the situation was like back in 1800 where there was no modern medicine. With all these problems, nurses are not only physically stress in the desire to reach and help individuals who are in unreachable areas but also psychologically suffer by seeing patients serious suffer and die due to lack of adequate facilities to avert this. The implications of such stress is low morale and high rate of dissatisfaction that translates to poor medical service delivery, high level of death and eventually loss of interest in the profession leading to nurses shortages that might negatively affect the health sector in the near future (Chiriboga et al.

1983).