Category Archives: Emergency preparedness

Ukraine Bloodshed: Political Advisor, Manager but Humanitarian and Nurse First n’ Foremost

Posted on by • Posted in Democratization, Emergency preparedness, emergency response and disaster relief, European Affairs, Geo-political events, health care, Humanitarian effort, International affairs, leadership, Politics, sentinel event • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 2 Comments
Feb 20, 2014

Ukraine in flames

February 20th, 2014 in Sacramento, CA. USA

I was a young Czech nurse when the atrocities were happening in the Balkans, and NOBODY from the EU moved a finger, nobody helped them! I often asked myself what would have I done…?

While I had no influence over it, as after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, after 40 years of oppression, and 20 years of Soviet occupation, I finally was allowed to travel abroad and I left home.

I looked after children, cleaned houses and pubs, learned English by myself at nights, held 2-3 jobs in order to follow my dreams of studying and obtaining my Nursing licenses in Canada & USA, only to go further towards my biggest dreams of earning multiple university degrees in global politics, global health & regional development & administration at prestigious U.S. universities (CSUSM and UM). CSU grad kept her ‘eye on the goal’ – San Diego Union-Tribune  San Diego Union-Tribune regional newspaper did an interview with me about my road towards BA in Political Science  Magna Cum Laude coming from post-Communist country.

To this day, I am ashamed to be European for our utter failure in the Balkans! Seeing the almost unrepairable damage that conflict left until today, over 18 years later, is utterly heartbreaking. We all bear responsibility.

For better or worse, the ONLY leader who proved to LEAD was U.S. President Clinton, who due to the long-standing ‘Monroe Doctrine’  did not and could not put “boots on the ground” as Americans love to say, but instigated aerial raids. President Clinton’s role in this conflict is being discussed even today, however, speaking as someone who has deep historical roots to the Peoples abandoned and left behind Ukraine needs the change to come from withind by the Western powers in their time of need, without any help… (The Munich Agreement of 1938, The Prague Spring of 1968 -> followed by foreign invasion of my beloved homeland by 5 foreign armies, led by, you guessed it, the Soviets and their criminal leader Leonid Brezhnev). Trust me when I tell you, you want help, any help!

It is only here, in this country, where we have the incredible luxury to discuss and criticize actions of which we quite often know very little. BUT, let me finish, it is a part of our political system, it is a part of democracy and as a democracy “groupie” myself, I fully respect and admire this system very much. In fact, I have been actively involved in the post-communist transition to democracy and democratization of institution in Czech Republic on the local political level for past 20 years, and it is Job’s job. It is only when you are on the ground, demonstrating against the power that is usurping you and denigrating you, waving your flags, being beaten and shot that you are looking towards the skies hoping to see some allies and The Allies!

For my beloved Czechoslovakia in 1968, the year my amazing parents got married and sadly also the year their HOPE and DREAMS were squashed by the Soviet invasion, there were, for very obvious Cold War reasons, no sky allies or any Allies…  And we (as in my fellow countrymen, since I was not even ‘an idea’) were looking up and waiting, every day! In the years afterwards, during the deep Normalization process (just a different word for Communistic indoctrination enforced by Soviets), we were secretly listening to the Radio Free Europe and Voice of America (both I believed financed by the US) in our basements, faced with hard jail time if caught, waiting for hours to hear our country even being mentioned! And this is how people of Ukraine feel today.

We are amalgamate of our previous experiences, and I really do “FEEL” the past plight, hurts and betrayals of my people and my country. Well, visiting every concentration camp around during yearly school ‘day trips’ since 2nd grade left DEEP scars and nightmares in my soul. At the same time, it also cemented such un-moveable human resolve, built foundation for my ‘Fight-or-Flight‘ (political not systemic) response, and cemented my strong sense of protection, responsibility for others, and especially for the weaker and for those who at that time were /are unable to look after themselves => any more questions why I am a nurse, political operator and a humanitarian?   No, did not think so 🙂

We have a collective responsibility and we have obligations.

Now as a proud (dual Czech and) U.S. citizen and highly degreed and educated RN, at this point my love & passion for politics, strategy and campaign goes away and my nursing  and humanitarian responsibility takes over. That is exactly WHY I DO politics, to PREVENT this! However, once you cross over a certain threshold, it is no longer about my ability “to do” politics but about my ability to “take care of people”. People need help no matter who is shooting at them and my nursing training and practice precludes me from judging my patients, and that I had some I did not like in my 15+years! Period.

EU lagging behind, always

I wrote an article last May 2013 year asking Should the EU Care about Syria? The Balkans, anybody..?!?

Now, as if I had a premonition, similar problem is on the border with our Czech brothers, Slovakia! (and Poland, Romania & Moldova on my EU side) and the EU is STILL discussing and issuing statements about ‘freezing assets’ of the bad guys – on both sides. OK… and how is that gonna work from a logistical point of view, and MOST importantly, HOW is this gonna help the dying people of Kiev? This piece is NOT debating blame or who started what, this piece is strictly concerned with the PEOPLE and their medical and human needs. Period.

Knowing how Russian tyrant Putin feels about Ukraine since he considers it to be a part of his Mother Russia, holding them hostage at will over access to natural gas and other resource… and hearing as a freedom loving and globe trotting Czech the same tyrant Putin saying that he ALSO consider my Czech Republic to be still under their sphere of influence, my heart stopped! We’ve already been there, it was hell, and nobody wants to go back…

It is my unequivocal belief we all have global roles to play, we all can help and serve wherever we can. Thus I am able to feel the plight, fear, resolve but also the uncertainty of people of Ukraine. I promised myself, I will never sit on the sidelines, and I never do, should anything like that started to happen again especially in or around my original homeland and Europe.

I believe, this is my calling and my responsibility.

I can never let the Balkans repeat. Ever!

Awareness, Responsibility

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/02/20/ukraine-doesnt-need-sanctions-from-the-united-states-or-the-european-union?src=usn_tw

Tagged:

Stability: International Journal of Security & Development
University of Miami, Master of Arts in International Administration (The MAIA Program)
USAID – US Agency for International Development
International Rescue Committee
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response
People in Need – Official
The Relief Foundation, Inc.
USF Global Disaster Management & Humanitarian Relief
ReliefWeb
Humanitarian Assistance Program
European Commission – Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection
Human Rights Watch
U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesSee More

Issues to ponder about U.S. emergency response in a small pox sentinel event [1/2]

Posted on by • Posted in Emergency preparedness, emergency response and disaster relief, Program Administration, sentinel event • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 7 Comments

http://rt.com/news/uk-smallpox-terror-threat-379/

(this post is as a response to the above mentioned article)

My area of expertise is NOT discussing the threat level colors with national security experts and advisors arguing about a possible impending terror plot using biological weapons. I leave that complicated and complex discussion and decision-making to those experts, and God be with them and us…

My area of expertise is program administration, infrastructure coordination and immediate implementation of emergency response policies such as putting the correct SOPs to work, dealing with and trying to protect the first responders, dealing with city & hospital command centers, dealing with local,  state and federal agencies, organizing teams and rolling out regional plans… and of course managing & administering it all in the most productive, cost effective, safe and human capital most efficient way.

Reading about the split view between the US and UK on the response to small pox threat, while out of my area of expertise, nonetheless all I see in this are the problematic areas of such sentinel event response starting with the politics of preventing public panic, not knowing the degree of events we would be dealing with as the latency of small pox is up to 3 weeks and they are highly infectious – and that’s just for starters!
In today’s globalized and inter-connected world we would be probably looking at pandemic situation where 2 million doses of US vaccines – even when and if administered at the most opportune time to the right people – would barely scratch the surface of such disaster.    …Would antivirals save lives? In time?
So yes, from the administrator point of view, a band-aid solution… and didn’t we learn, band-aid solutions cause more damage and are followed by increased public anger and outrage plus are usually way more costly in the end?

The political and societal fall out of such health security threat sentinel event would reach heights we have never seen before with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, instant messaging, YouTube, Pintrest etc… It would be up to the administrators and the politicians to calm and reassure the population that all the necessary steps are being taken… Are they? Would they?
Again, we are talking about small pox with 3 weeks prodromal stage, highly infectious spread and don’t forget – scary looking, as I can already see the horrible images floating on Instagram, YouTube and being posted on FB and the enormous public panic &  fear that would create as a result, because in today’s inter-connected and globalized world we all are much closer to one another, both literally and figuratively speaking.
(Highly developed, skilled and organized social crises media management during emergency response is and will be an indispensable and absolutely vital part of any emergency planning, preparedness and response).

So both countries better return to the point of origin and start thinking of the proper procedures, administration and coordination of such wide-spread effort with proper planning, training, established (and properly working and functioning!) channels of communications, assigned priorities, tasks, set ways of decision-making during such sentinel events – with proper management and foresight into what may come.
Without well prepared and well though-out massive plans of response, the division of views between the US and the UK on this issue will sadly be completely irrelevant.

Would you dare to make a political decision in emergency response to small pox, in such disaster scenario…? [2/2]

Posted on by • Posted in Emergency preparedness, emergency response and disaster relief, Program Administration, sentinel event • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 16 Comments

The U.S.may perhaps have vaccination and antivirals for the whole population, even though the storage and management of vaccination for millions of people must be quite an undertaking, nevertheless the utmost responsibility and primary role of the government is to protect its citizens and keep the people safe from enemies foreign, domestic, or in this case enemies of highly infectious nature and spread (yes, an infectious event most likely brought on by one or the other enemy mentioned above)

So to answer the above question if I dared to make a political decision for such program…? Yes! …but I am not a career politician…they make decisions differently – and for very obvious reasons.

Should that be a part of my job and a part of my professional expertise and my professional recommendation, should that be my decision-making responsibility – then yes, of course, I would make a decision and I would accept the responsibility.
In fact, that was exactly why I was “there” occupying that office and that position, to lead as leaders are sorely needed! So if in spite of knowing all about the small pox sentinel  event scenario had I accepted this (fictitious) appointment or a position then yes, it would be my decision, my recommendation and my responsibility for such scenario and for the people – whatever the decision may be, either do something or do nothing.

That’s my final answer, Alex (doesn’t that sounds familiar … ??)

While the crises analysis and projection of impact studies can be (and hopefully are) low on probability, and we all do hope so, it is still the responsibility of the government and its appropriate agencies to discuss, debate and plan for varied scenarios and call different “plays” all in order to prepare for such – even if – unthinkable event.

As I stated in my previous post, I am not an expert on the likelihood of small pox epidemic event or on the effectiveness or amount of US vaccines or antivirals, so I will not be delving into those issues.
However, what I am an expert on is emergency response, efficient administration, effective organization of people and key infrastructure – including the level of preparedness and skilfulness to deal with basic human behavior in crisis + panicked public (and they would be PANICKED, trust me!) and dealing with the complexities of emergency response management of such massive scale (I am still using the scenario of a sentinel event here).

Let’s be honest, when this hits, we will not have few days (or a week) of luxury to watch and wait “for the water to go down to save people from their rooftops”- aka Katrina emergency response. So while perhaps almost an unlikely event – great, we won! However, should any level of this event occur and we would not respond in the right, correct and specific way – we would be in deep Katrina waters, I mean in deep troubles.

Few years back I was a part of a sentinel event disaster and emergency response exercise in a regional hospital that had a central command center set up. We are talking seasoned medical and nursing professionals who make life-or-death decisions and see things every day the rest of the population doesn’t even know they exist, and yet the underlying panic, the hesitancy to give orders, the miss-communication, and the lack of feed-back to properly assess the ongoing developments – it was eye-opening for everybody. GOOD! That’s exactly why we have these exercises and preparation sessions – to learn!

So overall, it was a successful day even though the staff did not look like “success” at the end of the day. Again, these were highly motivated, educated, experienced professionals and senior staff members in an acute care setting, you would think they know what to do in an emergency as they deal with almost every possible scenario on daily basis…
But as I was told by one old and revered ER physician in the hallway: “You know young lady, there is an emergency, and then there is an Emergency”.