Nurses Form an Indispensable Part of the Red Cross

Red Cross nurses are always ready to put aside their personal lives to help others who are in desperate straits. Following Hurricane Sandy, for example, more than 700 Disaster Health Services volunteers, most of them nurses, have rotated through to help. These nurses, together with the disaster mental health team, have provided more than 112,000 Sandy-related health services and emotional support consultations for people living in very tough conditions.

Lucy Perna, a retired nurse from New Jersey, was called to help at a high-school gymnasium shelter at 7 a.m. the Sunday before the storm hit; she worked straight through until Thursday evening. She was the only nurse at a 150-person shelter that swelled to 250. “Everyone there,” Perna said, “was trying to take care of these people who were devastated.”

Disaster nursing is just one area that a Red Cross nurse volunteer can practice in. Red Cross RNs practice across all of the organization’s business lines, providing nursing care in Service to the Armed Forces, Preparedness and Health and Safety Services, Disaster Services, Biomedical Services and International Services.

Examples of Nursing Practice

In fact, to articulate what Red Cross nurses do is to understand exactly what the nursing license means. Nurses are responsible to meet standards and a scope of practice that aligns with their education and training. Information about what nurses do (or can do) for their Red Cross unit can be found in their state’s Nurse Practice Act which provides the foundation for nurse licensure. The health care possibilities might read as follows:

■Perform physical and psychosocial assessments/exams and health histories


■Perform community assessments for preparedness, response and recovery


■Supply leadership on committees and governing bodies


■Provide health promotion, counseling and training/education


■Provide client-centered and community-centered nursing care interventions


■Interpret client information and make critical decisions about needed actions


■Coordinate care, in collaboration with a wide array of healthcare professionals


■Provide training and education (e.g., educating the public about the need for blood and the safety of being a donor)


■Direct and supervise care delivered by other healthcare personnel like LPNs/LVNs and nurse aides


■Conduct research in support of improved practice and client outcomes