|
 The Registered Nurse (RN) in this role is responsible for overseeing and directly managing all clinical aspects supporting the county response to public health emergencies. Key functions include staff training and education, and rigorous evaluations of mass vaccination and prophylaxis planning in which the RN plays a lead role. The RN also helps design and conduct exercises stressing and testing the existing preparedness systems, while also creating and managing methodical medication and vaccine distribution processes critical to effectively responding to a wide-scale public health crisis.
Nurses - by virtue of their professional education and experience - become experts in the classic nursing process: assess, plan, implement, and evaluate. These steps closely parallel the phases of All Hazard Planning: analysis, planning, response, and recovery.
Embedding a nurse within the health department is a strategic step to streamline access to this specialized clinical resource for the comprehensive crisis management team.
| 
