Watching the video “The Story of Hurricane Sandy and NYU Medical Center” brought back many memories from my childhood when I was living in Florida. In the five year timespan that I lived on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, I experienced four hurricanes, the most serious one being hurricane Charley in 2004. The reason that this disaster in nursing video reminded me of these memories from my childhood is because my father was a nurse down at a hospital in Florida during these hurricanes. Although I was very young, I remember my dad would have to leave during the storms as my mom watched me and my siblings at home. He had to go to the hospital to take care of the patients and I can imagine that the scenes I saw in the Hurricane Sandy video was very similar to what my dad experienced. It’s inspiring to see all the individuals that work in the medical field pull together during times of natural disaster. The most impressive part of that video was when they were able to move all the patients to different hospitals when the NYU Medical Center lost power without losing a single patient. I also thought it was inspiring how everyone pulled together to make sure that the medical center was able to open its doors months later, when a project of that scale should have taken years to complete. It just goes to show how easy it is for everyone to pull together when they are all working towards a common goal to help the community.

Back in 2020, I worked as a CNA in a hospital during the start of the pandemic and it felt like chaos walking into every shift not knowing what was going to happen. However, having management that stays calm and directs everyone can help produce a positive outcome in a negative situation. After working on the COVID units for months at the start of the pandemic, I can see how draining it can be to work as a nurse during times of disaster. Although disaster nursing isn’t a specialty I could see myself partaking in, I know that entering the nursing field means that during times of disaster everyone is called to the front line to help because that is part of being a nurse.