Bioterrorism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Bioterrorism - Research Paper Example This paper will study through previous researches and three different journals the barriers for the community health nursing for surveillance and identification of diseases caused by bioterrorism agents. Defining Bioterrorism: Bioterrorism is a form of terrorism in which different biological agents are released in order to make the people, plants or animals sick in masses. The consequences are in a number of deaths. These bioterrorism agents are usually viruses, bacteria, or toxins. However, these agents are present in the surrounding already but they are modified and reworked in a way that their ability is increased and that they also become resistant to the current medicines available so that there is no cure for them. The mediums usually used in order to multiply these bioterrorism agents are water, air and food sometimes. One of the major reasons for bioterrorism is that, that terrorist adopts this kind since it cannot be detected quickly and easily. These agents take time to rea ct, sometimes days and sometimes even weeks (A†¡ankaya & Kibaroglu, 2010). The significance of the study: The subject of bioterrorism in the community health sector in the US was not of major concern until 2001. The use of ‘Anthrax’ has created a serious fear of bioterrorism among the communities. Moreover, these bioterrorism attacks have also created realization and a sense of consideration for the healthcare department particularly community health nurses that their role during such attacks are very significant. Therefore proper education and training are very important factors for the community health nurses in order to overcome the chaos at the time of any bioterrorism attack (Mellehovitch, 2004). Bioterrorism and Community Health Nurses: Across the US, the issue of bioterrorism among the public health sector has become a core issue. Usually, the public and the US community rely initially on these primary healthcare departments for the inspection of any disease or unusual biological conduct. The community health nurses are the center of attention for this entire process and for delivering their services. However, cases have been observed where the lack of training and education among the health care nurses to handle and manage any bioterrorism attacks were observed, creating chaos and panic as a result. Not only this, the shortage of community of health nurses was also observed while any attack of bioterrorism. It is very obvious that the community health nurses need training for the bioterrorism preparedness so that they are ready to handle and are pre-prepared if their community is attacked by bioterrorism in a professional manner (Rebmann, 2006). According to a research journal on bioterrorism by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) it was observed that many of the community healthcare staff and nurses did not follow any formal training or education in order to manage or handle any bioterrorism attack. Out of the hundreds of nurses interviewed by (Gerberding & Hughes, 2002) very few of them took courses and fhealth careation in community healthcare and for bioterrorism. While the remaining nurses made complaints to the researchers that were not able to conduct their studies on bioterrorism because of the shortage of the staff who will take coverage of their nonattendance. As a result they had to take help and lessons from those nurses