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Narrative trajectories of disaster response: ethical preparedness from Katrina to COVID-19.
- Source :
-
Medical humanities [Med Humanit] 2022 Jun; Vol. 48 (2), pp. e8. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 20. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- While COVID-19 brings unprecedented challenges to the US healthcare system, understanding narratives of historical disasters illuminates ethical complexities shared with COVID-19. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina revealed a lack of disaster preparation and protocol, not dissimilar to the challenges faced by COVID-19 healthcare workers. A case study of Memorial Hospital during Hurricane Katrina reported by journalist-MD Sheri Fink reveals unique ethical challenges at the forefront of health crises. These challenges include disproportionate suffering in structurally vulnerable populations, as seen in COVID-19 where marginalised groups across the USA experience higher rates of disease and COVID-19-related death. Journalistic accounts of Katrina and COVID-19 offer unique perspectives on the ethical challenges present within medicine and society, and analysis of such stories reveals narrative trajectories anticipated in the aftermath of COVID-19. Through lenses of social suffering and structural violence, these narratives reinforce the need for systemic change, including legal action, ethical preparedness and physician protection to ensure high-quality care during times of crises. Narrative Medicine-as a practice of interrogating stories in medicine and re-centering the patient-offers a means to contextualise individual accounts of suffering during health crises in larger social matrices.<br />Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.<br /> (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)
- Subjects :
- Delivery of Health Care
Humans
COVID-19
Cyclonic Storms
Disaster Planning
Disasters
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1473-4265
- Volume :
- 48
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Medical humanities
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 34930803
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2021-012194