This book documents how nurses have shown their dedication courage expertise and compassion
in helping communities prepare for respond to and recover from disastrous events. It aims to
inspire and equip nurses and other health professionals to help people in disaster-affected
areas and contribute to community resilience. The last decade (2005-2015) has been
characterized by a number of overwhelming natural disasters - tropical storms floods
earthquakes tsunamis and threats of emerging infectious diseases - SARS MERSCoV and Ebola
around the world. Countries from the Asia Pacific region such as Australia Cambodia China
Indonesia India Japan Nepal Philippines Solomon Islands South Korea Thailand and Vanuatu
have borne the brunt of the devastation caused by these catastrophic events. Nurses from these
countries have stepped in providing emergency care in hospitals and in the field addressing
public health needs in evacuation centers supporting epidemiologic surveillance and conducting
health education training and research to help save lives and support communities build back
better.
