title: Educational opportunities: a nursing school model for medical special-needs sheltering.
abstract: The devastation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina increased the awareness of persons who were unable to self-evacuate because of physical and/or mental disabilities. From that awareness, plans emerged to provide a safe haven for those who had special needs. In this article, we describe our efforts as a school of nursing to shelter medical special needs (MSN) evacuees in the wake of a hurricane. After the shelter closed, faculty and students involved in the shelter answered a short survey that included both open- and close-ended questions. The responses are summarized to encourage other schools of nursing to consider caring for MSN evacuees and to share our successes, our failures, and our plans for the future.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Tyler, TX 75779, USA. bdeal@uttyler.edu
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Deal
authors.forename: Danita
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alfred
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fountain
authors.forename: Terri
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chilton
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D055820:New Orleans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011638:Public Housing; D012066:Relief Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012573:School Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires