Three Years Post-Katrina, New Orleans in Healthcare Crisis and Bracing for Gustav
As America turns its attention toward New Orleans on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster, the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) is releasing a video that conveys the impact of a second disaster facing the city – the collapse of its healthcare system. On the eve of the anniversary, as tropical storm Gustav gathers strength cities in Mississippi and Louisiana are placed on high alert, and residents express grave concerns that their basic healthcare needs will be ignored again.
Press Release
Jan 1, 2011
Reflections of a Katrina nurse
Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. What we did to the residents of the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina was a man-made disaster.
The Courier-Journal
Nurses tell of tattered health system - Access to care is still inadequate, they say
Six local nurses said Monday that mental distress is omnipresent in New Orleans these days as residents feel helpless to secure rebuilding grants, find doctors and schools and otherwise navigate life in a fragile city.
Times Picayune
Nurses network to prevent future disasters like Hurricane Katrina
Some 300 nurses in the Washington area have joined a national network of nurses willing to deploy to the sites of natural disasters wherever they occur.
Washington Examiner
Nurses take next step with national disaster organization
HOUSTON - Nurse Bonnie Castillo remembers hearing from officials that the medical situation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck was "fine" - volunteers weren't needed.
Star-Telegram
Nursing group ready to send volunteers to scenes of disaster
Doug Smith, a registered nurse at Swedish Hospital, remembers getting annoyed as he watched the official response to Hurricane Katrina.
Rocky Mountain News
Free health clinic opening to help Lower 9 come back - Volunteers, donors make service possible
Eighteen months after the levee failures and Hurricane Katrina shattered the Lower 9th Ward, residents this week welcomed the opening of a free health clinic on St. Claude Avenue.
Times Picayune
Nurses prepare disaster response - CNA builds fund for RN network
The California Nurses Association found a new use last year for its ability to organize nurses quickly. It sent more than 300 nurses to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
East Bay Business Journal
Emotional connections: Nurses find mission to Gulf changed their lives
After two weeks of treating desperate and scared families who survived thrashing flood waters and vicious winds with only their lives, the emotional connection to work became — and remains — unavoidable.
Vallejo Times Herald
Ashley Forsberg, RN, Helps Haiti Earthquake Victims
Ashley Forsberg, RN, a medical/surgical nurse from Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan is brimming with emotion from her relief work in Haiti on the Navy ship USNS Comfort.