title: US Military Nurses: Serving Within the Chaos of Disaster.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to share US military nurses' experiences of responding to disasters. Using phenomenology, 23 participants serving as US military nurses from different service branches and the US Public Health Service volunteered for a single face-to-face interview. Five polar themes plus one final theme emerged from the narratives. Nurses expressed a sense of loss, reshaping of thoughts regarding disasters, and new appreciation of how people's lives are totally disrupted. Findings showed a need for change in nursing education, practice, training, policy, and recommendations for higher education and how the military may better educate its personnel.
authors.affiliation: Disaster Preparedness Emergency Management, Army Nurse Corps, PO Box 910, USA; Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR 72467, USA. Electronic address: feleciarivers59@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Felecia M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Rivers
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000193:education; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D008888:Military Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States
keywords: Disaster response; Emotional response; Existential growth; Military nurses; Phenomenology; Unknown