In early October, Audrey Rangel, MIPH, RN, spoke to Nurse.com by Skype from Monrovia, Liberia, where Ebola had hit especially hard. She described in great detail the layered, complex suits that she and other nurses wore and changed just about every hour, the 10-day intensive training she received, the nursing care she provided and the precautions and self-care she and the other three nurses practiced. Rangel also talked about what she saw and heard on the streets of Monrovia, and what education and information was being disseminated in the city. The only emergency models available are for “typical” emergency responses, but as everyone knew, the Ebola outbreak was not a typical emergency. For this very reason, sources from Partners in Health, International Medical Corps and Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health discuss the importance of training nurses properly prior to sending them in to Africa as well establishing safety and training criteria for volunteers responding to the Ebola crisis, including evacuation plans and the process for transporting volunteers who contract the virus.
