Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 6, 2025
09:27
Wind Tunnel Experiments to Study Chaparral Crown Fires
Published on: November 14, 2017
10.0K
Learning from Wildfire Disaster Experience in California NICUs.
Amy L Ma1, Ronald S Cohen1, Henry C Lee1,2
1Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|October 6, 2020
Summary
California NICU teams developed creative strategies to safely evacuate vulnerable infants during wildfire disasters. Essential elements included equipment, transport, and teamwork for disaster preparedness.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Neonatal Medicine
- Disaster Management
Background:
- Wildfires pose significant risks to vulnerable populations, including infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
- California has experienced numerous wildfires, necessitating robust disaster preparedness plans for healthcare facilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how California NICU healthcare personnel managed neonatal transfers during wildfire events.
- To identify lessons learned for enhancing disaster preparedness in NICUs.
Main Methods:
- Identified California fires using official and media sources.
- Determined affected hospitals and contacted NICU staff via the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC) database.
- Conducted interviews and surveys, analyzing responses to understand transfer protocols and challenges.
Main Results:
- Key elements for successful neonatal transfer during wildfires included specialized equipment (bassinets, backpacks), efficient ambulance access and transport, and meticulous documentation.
- Healthcare teams demonstrated exceptional teamwork, adaptability, and utilized unconventional strategies to ensure infant safety.
- Ingenious and surprising methods were employed by healthcare teams for NICU infant evacuation.
Conclusions:
- Effective disaster preparedness in NICUs requires a multi-faceted approach addressing equipment, logistics, and team coordination.
- Cross-functional teamwork and a willingness to adapt roles are crucial for managing neonatal transfers during extreme weather events like wildfires.
- Sharing these innovative strategies can improve NICU resilience and infant safety during future disasters.
Related Concept Videos
02:41Responses to Drought and Flooding
11.7K
Water plays a significant role in the life cycle of plants. However, insufficient or excess of water can be detrimental and pose a serious threat to plants.
11.7K
01:29Applications of GIS: Disaster Management and Emergency Response
323
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is essential for risk identification, action prioritization, and resource optimization in critical situations like flooding and earthquakes. By integrating spatial and demographic data, GIS provides a comprehensive framework for emergency response.GIS integrates data layers, like rainfall intensity, topography, elevation profiles, and river levels, to model high-risk flood zones. These layers assess areas susceptible to flooding based on their...
323
02:26Ecological Disturbance
20.3K
An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.
20.3K
02:17Ecological Succession
20.9K
Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...
20.9K
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
20.6K
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
20.6K
01:14SBAR II: Application of SBAR
5.4K
SBAR is an effective communication tool used by healthcare professionals to communicate patient information accurately. SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation. For a better understanding, an example is given below.
SBAR Report from a Nurse to a Health Care Provider
S: "Hello, Dr. Smith. This is Jane, RN, from the Med Surg unit. I am calling to tell you about Ms. White in Room 210, who is experiencing increased pain and redness at her incision site. Her recent...
SBAR Report from a Nurse to a Health Care Provider
S: "Hello, Dr. Smith. This is Jane, RN, from the Med Surg unit. I am calling to tell you about Ms. White in Room 210, who is experiencing increased pain and redness at her incision site. Her recent...
5.4K