Browsing by Author "Penta, Samantha"
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Item Figuring out the fixing: understanding the underlying processes for designing and implementing crisis medical relief efforts(University of Delaware, 2017) Penta, SamanthaExtreme events have the ability to cause substantial harm to the people subjected to them. In particular, disasters and public health emergencies can lead to an increase, sometimes substantial ones, of people in need of medical care. Delivery of that care becomes an important part of the response and relief effort. This research seeks to answer the question “How do the actors that become involved providing international medical relief to an international crisis event plan and implement that effort?” To answer this question, I use a combination of interview, observation, and document data. Using interviews, observation, and document analysis, I study the development of relief efforts of multiple groups involved in response to at least one of two crisis events: the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the April 25, 2015 earthquake in Nepal. ☐ This decision-making took place in an operational context in which characteristics of the event, the political, legal, social, and cultural environment, physical environment, and resources all influenced those decisions. Relief workers captured information about this setting through the process of developing situational awareness, in which they gathered, communicated, and processed that information. They worked with definitions and boundaries as they developed that situational awareness. They ultimately made decisions through the use of a matching process. These three processes were linked together through a sort of feedback loop. Collectively, they created a condition of decisional inertia in decision-making, where as groups committed more resources towards a particular course of action and made more and more decisions over time, fewer and fewer opportunities were available to participate in the broader response, and it became increasingly difficult for organizations to change course in their relief effort. However, when substantial forces acted upon the relief efforts, such a s a change in the event itself or large-scale changes within an organization, new opportunities for participation opened up, allowing for change in organizational activity previously not available.Item The value of preparedness: organizational culture and preparedness in Delaware nursing homes(University of Delaware, 2013) Penta, SamanthaIn August of 2011, Hurricane Irene made landfall on the coast of North Carolina and made its way up the east coast of the United States. In anticipation of potential flooding because of this storm, one Delaware nursing home evacuated its facility. As a result the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Division of Long Term Care Residents Protection sponsored a study to examine the challenges congregate care facilities face regarding disaster preparedness, emergency evacuation, and sheltering. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with administrators and senior level personnel from 17 skilled facilities in Delaware regarding experiences during Hurricane Irene, and preparedness activity more generally. Taking an inductive approach, this study uses organizational culture theory to explore disaster preparedness in skilled facilities. The study seeks to determine if skilled facilities have a culture of preparedness, and if they do, what that culture looks like, if this culture is industry-wide, or if it varies by facility type. Several themes emerged in the analysis, including a capacity for flexibility when necessary, valuing their own experience and the experiences of others in the healthcare setting, and a grounding of risk perception in familiar experiences. Data suggests that the characteristics of their culture are not universal industry-wide, but rather that differences emerge for reasons beyond network involvement.