Will SARS or another pandemic influenza reoccur and, if it does, have we learned how to manage pandemics more effectively? In SARS Unmasked risk communication expert Michael Tyshenko offers answers to this and other questions. Cathy Paterson, who worked as a nurse clinician during the Toronto SARS crisis, adds an important view from the frontlines. Their analysis reveals an out-of-control situation with mixed risk communication messages, a lack of leadership, and an overwhelmed health care system that was unable to both cope with the crisis in Toronto and provide adequate support for their most valuable employees at the time - health care workers.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was the first global pandemic of the twenty-first century, spreading within weeks from southern China to over thirty-seven countries around the world. In Canada intense news media coverage had a profound impact on how the disease was perceived, with frontline health care workers, despite their heroic efforts, stigmatized due to their contact with patients.

This exciting book tells the story of the recent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Follow the SARS trail from rural China as it spreads to various places in the world. See how seemingly casual contacts help the disease spread like wildfire. Work alongside the many infectious disease specialists from health organizations around the world as they painstakingly trace the disease to its origins and simultaneously work on treatments-all the time knowing that each hour of delay allows the disease to spread even further.

We are releasing this report to mark the one-year anniversary of the loss of our colleagues - Nelia Laroza and Tecla Lin - to SARS, and to honour the commitment and dedication of the hundreds of nurses and other health-care professionals who worked through the SARS outbreak. [...] The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (RPNAO), the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO), the Community Health Nurses Initiatives Group (CHNIG), and the Association of Nursing Directors and Supervisors of Ontario Official Health Agencies (ANDSOOHA), also shared their perspectives with RNAO Nurses' voices The key themes emerging from the focus gr [...] Make recommendations that will lead to improvements in the resources, structures, policies, procedures and practices of all three levels of government, health-care organizations and providers, addressing those factors which limited the effectiveness and timeliness of the health-care system's ability to respond to SARS, including: a. the ability to protect the health and safety of health-care worke [...] This section provides a review of: the clinical realities and challenges of SARS; the chronology of key events; the impact of SARS on nurses' health; the phases of the outbreak; and the nursing human resources context that greeted the arrival of SARS. [...] The operative word in this definition is "emerging." Much of the chaos and fear experienced during the first weeks of the SARS crisis arose from the initial lack of knowledge about the causative agent and its mode of transmission.

Will SARS or another pandemic influenza reoccur and, if it does, have we learned how to manage pandemics more effectively? In SARS Unmasked risk communication expert Michael Tyshenko offers answers to this and other questions. Cathy Paterson, who worked as a nurse clinician during the Toronto SARS crisis, adds an important view from the frontlines. Their analysis reveals an out-of-control situation with mixed risk communication messages, a lack of leadership, and an overwhelmed health care system that was unable to both cope with the crisis in Toronto and provide adequate support for their most valuable employees at the time - health care workers.

This timely volume describes and analyzes the nursing response to a variety of historic and recent global disasters that occurred between 1885 and 2012, including Hurricane Sandy. The book is unique in its discussion of cooperation and conflict in the disaster responses regarding the mobilization of individuals across national borders and continents. It examines how partnerships developed, their implications for policy, and how we can use lessons learned to improve care in the future. The book addresses such questions as: How did local, regional, and national communities mobilize for emergency care? What was the role of local nurses in emergency care after disasters? What was the role of the national or international Red Cross, local and federal governments, physicians, nurses, and other first responders? What was the impact of social attitudes and issues of race, class, and gender on the ways nurses and other health care professionals reacted to the disasters? How did unpreparedness for the type or scope of the disaster affect the response? The book will be of value to a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate students in nursing, social work, history, health policy, women’s studies, public health, and urban studies. KEY FEATURES: Addresses the role of nurses in di saster response Highlights nurses’ roles in di sasters that occurred in the context of World War II—heretofore unaddressed in the interest of political correctness Discusses policy implications of the different disasters