CNA/NNOC Nurse Volunteers Deployed to Southern California...( RNs available...),Health

RNs available for interviews

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has sent volunteer registered nurses through its Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) to Southern California to assist in responding to the spreading disaster created by wildfires in the region.

Two contingents of volunteer RNs were deployed to shelters in San Diego County in response to an appeal from the San Diego Emergency Medical Services agency and RNRN's own needs assessments done by staff in the field. The nurses are currently staffing the Faith Chapel, near the Harris fire located in Spring Valley, which is home to 100 evacuees and their pets and "The Rock" a mega church and one of the main evacuation shelters where many patients from skilled nursing facilities were relocated.

Christina Talley and Deborah Morgan, RNRN volunteers staffing the Faith Chapel shelter, are both emergency room RNs and sisters who work at Hemet Valley Hospital. They are not new to disaster relief. Both were deployed by CNA to New Orleans, seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region and created their own clinic out of a shipping container in City Park. Twelve years ago they drove down to Northridge Hospital after the earthquake and set up a makeshift emergency room in their family's motor home and also volunteered during the Cedar's firestorm that occurred four years ago today.

"We are concerned that patient needs continue to be evaluated once the cameras go away and the news disappears from the front pages," said Talley.

RNRN began the volunteer recruitment effort Tuesday with calls and e-mail alerts to RNs, and with a posting on the RNRN website http://www.calnurses.org/rnrn. Additionally, RNRN is in ongoing contact with all seven counties' Emergency Medical Services agencies in assessing the need for experience
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