Lesson 3 Organization of First Level Care at the Disaster Site

Study Guide

This unit begins to present specific details on how the health system should be organized to deal with the results of a disaster. It presents information on providing relief and first aid to victims at the disaster site and making decisions on triage and evacuation.

Learning Objectives

List the two types of care normally provided at the site of a disaster.

Describe five minimal standards of organization required at the disaster site.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of mobile hospitals.

Define the mission of search and rescue units.

Explain the primary basis for classifying casualties at the disaster site.

Understand the concept of triage and the procedures of classification and tagging of victims.

Learning Activities

Read pages 11-17 in the manual.

Refer to the First Aid Training Checklist, page 101 of manual (Annex 6).

Examine the model triage tag on page 102 of the manual (Annex 7).

Note: The color coding given in Annex 7 is correct. Page 15 and 16 in the manual should be corrected.

Red = first priority
Yellow = second priority
Green = third priority

Read pages 77-80 in the manual (Annex 1). This presents facts and myths about individual and group human behavior likely to be encountered at disaster sites.

Evaluation

Complete the Self-Assessment Test.

Notes

Lesson 3
Self-Assessment Test

Multiple Choice

Circle the correct answer(s):

1. The first task at the scene of the accident is:

a. perform triage and tagging of casualties
b. identify patients who require immediate attention
c. give first aid to victims requiring basic resuscitation
d. establish a liaison with hospitals that will receive victims
e. determine the magnitude of the disaster

2. Triage begins when victims are encountered by:

a. search and rescue personnel
b. local survivors
c. rural hospital personnel
d. base hospital personnel
e. emergency room personnel

3. An injured person, who was tagged green at the site of disaster because of minor injuries detected, arrives unconscious at the emergency room. He should be tagged with one only:

a. black tag
b. green tag
c. red tag
d. yellow tag

4. The practice of first aid includes:

a. wounds and hemorrhages
b. burns
c. accident prevention
d. normal births
e. all of the above
f. a, b, d

True/False

Indicate T or F:

__ 5. If there are no red-tagged patients, green-tagged patients with apparently fatal injuries become red-tagged candidates.

__ 6. Yellow-tagged patients include both fatally injured victims and people with minor injuries.

__ 7. The staff of health posts and centers provides first level care when a disaster occurs in a rural area.

__ 8. Resources for on-site medical care are mobilized prior to formal implementation of a hospital's emergency plan.

__ 9. Triage is based on the seriousness of injuries.

__ 10. An example of a red-tag problem would be a deep abdominal injury.

__ 11. Serious fractures of the pelvis and thorax would be tagged yellow.

__ 12. First level care refers to relief and first aid offered to victims at the disaster site.

Answer Key