How did you get involved with the Red Cross?
I took an advanced first-aid class because in the hospital we have state-of-the-art equipment, but if you're out on a hike in the woods, you need to know how to take care of injuries outside the hospital setting. I learned a tremendous amount in that course that you don't learn in hospital training. The enthusiasm and the dedication of the volunteer instructors in that course made me want to stick around.

At first, I started out in health and safety, then I heard about disaster services. We send volunteers to disasters--floods, tornadoes, that sort of thing. For a while now, I've been the chair of disaster health services for the Palo Alto Area Red Cross. Technically, it is disaster nursing. We have few disasters in our area; mostly we train people to go to other people's disasters.

What does disaster services do?
We provide health services to disaster clients--we try not to use the word "victim" anymore--and to the volunteer personnel. The disaster action team gets called out 24 hours a day to any disaster in its jurisdiction--it could be a fire, a flood, an airplane crash. The Red Cross covers any kind of disaster. Our main thing is emergency clothing, shelter and any lost medical items. For instance, if your blood-sugar machine or your breathing machine was lost in a disaster, we help replace it. The shelter is probably the most well-known setting. About 20 percent of people in a large disaster need shelter, and you need an RN covering the shelter 24 hours a day. That is where we are short of nurses.

Nurses can go on three-week national assignments--they come back with these incredible stories. I can't do that financially, because I'm a single person and have to work. We're always looking for volunteer nurses and it is an extremely rewarding experience.

What is the reward for you?
Disaster clients in their most difficult hour of need are very appreciative of someone just caring about them. You may have someone who has no relatives in the area, they don't have a strong support system. Just being there and holding their hand means a lot to them. Having the client say, "Thank you so much for what you do." When you hear the stories of disaster clients, they are human stories. Every disaster client, regardless of income, has lost a great deal; it is very traumatic. Our motto is, "We'll be there because health can't wait. We'll be there 24 hours a day, no matter what the disaster."

Also, I worked in a shelter in San Francisco after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The chronic homeless were shelter residents. There was a homeless pregnant woman who came into the nurses station and I noticed that her speech had a hollow sound similar to people who have hearing deficits. We do not discriminate between "new" homeless [from the disaster] and the chronic homeless when they come into a Red Cross shelter. I referred her to be evaluated for an audiogram at San Francisco General Hospital. A week later, she returned to hug me in order to thank me as they were fitting her for a hearing aid. That is the kind of reward as a nurse that you can't put a price on. Often, shelter residents have limited resources and sometimes no regular health care. We provide a valuable service to these people.

Has volunteering helped you to be a better nurse?
You bring nursing skills to disaster training and learn what protocols you can do in a Red Cross setting vs. a hospital setting. You're using your nursing skills. The reason they want nurses there 24 hours a day is for our skills-assessment skills, people skills. If they didn't think they needed a nurse, they'd have someone else. I'm using assessment skills, detecting diseases early, noticing someone looks depressed. A nurse sees the big picture. Wherever we are, we quickly assess the situation. We can contribute with our skills.

What sort of training did you have?
There are Red Cross classes and you get contact hours for the classes toward keeping your license current. We recruit all kinds of health professionals, but most disaster health services volunteers are RNs.

They are a wonderful group of nurses. I've worked on disasters where nurses flew in from all over the country and they are wonderful people. These are people who are donating three weeks of their lives in rather stressful conditions. Sometimes national disasters have peace corps-like conditions. You may be sleeping in tents. It takes special people.

What training is required to volunteer for
the Red Cross?
All disaster volunteers must take Introduction to Disaster Services either as a class or as a take-home video. This explains what we do and describes the various functions that comprise the disaster services team. You then take two classes: Disaster Health Services Overview and Disaster Health Services Simulation. We offer BRN contact hours for those classes. If you are a psychiatric RN, you can become a disaster mental health volunteer and there is two-day class for that function.

How can nurses get involved?
Contact your local Red Cross chapter. The Red Cross Web site is www.redcross.org. Or you can contact me at lynnh@paarc.org. To find out about disasters both locally and globally, visit www.disasterrelief.org.