Fires in Underground Transport Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Fires in Underground Transport Systems - Essay Example Invisible flames and clean wood smoke caused misinterpretations among emergency response teams. In addition to 31 deaths, more than 60 people got hurt ranging from smoke inhalation to severe burns. Kaprun fire disaster The Kaprun fire disaster occurred at the Gletscherbahn 2 railway tunnel in Austria on 11th November 2000. The disaster killed 155 people; 12 people including 10 Germans and 2 Austrian were the only survivors of the catastrophe. As Carvel et al (2005, p. 6) claim, the unscientific infrastructure of the railway car greatly added to the disaster. To illustrate, the unit had kept its fire extinguishers out of the travellers’ reach and there were no smoke detectors on the board. The fire was ignited by an electric heater at the lower end of the train evidently due to a faulty design. The braking system pipes containing flammable hydraulic fluid were quickly melted and this condition resulted in an unexpected halt of the train. The intense fire damaged the emergency e xit systems of the train and therefore majority of the passengers were trapped in the train. Prior to the Kaprun disaster, designers had held a general view that fire would not occur in a funicular cabin. 1995 Baku Metro fire According to Fridolf (2010), the fire occurred in the subway system in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, on 28th October 1995 claimed the lives of 289 people. Electrical malfunction is believed to be the ultimate cause of the disaster even though there alleged to have a deliberate sabotage. Although 95% of the passengers survived the disaster, it remains the world’s deadliest fire in the underground transport system (ibid). Firstly, passengers observed white smoke, which was quickly turned to thick black smoke and caused... From this research it is clear that underground transportation systems planned and built these days are obviously very complex and vulnerable to fire accidents. Evidences show that fire accidents in the recent past caused extreme damages to people and property alike. Due to the spatial limitations of an underground transportation system, tunnel fires hinder all ‘rescue and repair’ operations and hence add to the intensity of the catastrophe. In addition, unlike other accident scenarios, passengers are less aware of the sources of danger and may not have clear and coherent information. This situation will also become a barrier to evacuation measures and increase the magnitude of the disaster. As Julga argues, technical defects and accidents are the two fundamental causes of fires in underground transportation systems. Although a variety of fire resisting tunnel transportation technologies have been developed recently, none of them is potential enough to completely elimina te the danger of fire. Some of the recent fire accidents in underground transportations systems are described in the paper. They would help one to understand the seriousness of the issue. There are two fundamental causes for fires in underground transportations systems: technical defects and accidents. Evidences suggest that technical defects are the main causes of majority of underground tunnel fires. The discussion altogether indicates that fires in underground transport result in dreadful impacts including human and material damage and immeasurable socio-economic losses.

Critical appraisal in clinical practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Critical appraisal in clinical practice - Essay Example It is of particular interest to me because various studies have been carried out on pain management and assessment, and I believe that establishing which studies provide the best evidence on care would also assist me in my delivery of health services (Hammer and Collinson, 1999). This paper shall first present the method by which the studies were selected. It shall be followed by the critical summaries and then by the appraisal of method. Finally, a synthesis of findings and reflection on practice will also be presented. Body Selection of papers In the selection of the papers, I entered the following search words in Google Scholar; post-operative + nursing care, post-operative issues + nursing, pain assessment + post-operative nursing. Search results were further narrowed down using the following additional parameters: past 10 years, and results from the following databases: EMBASE, CINAHL, PubMed, and the Cochrane databases. Articles found were further narrowed down based on advance d search parameters, covering meta-analysis and other scholarly types of research. The credibility of the authors was also evaluated, assessing their expertise on the subject of the research. Critical summaries In the study by Blondal and Halldorsdottir (2008), the authors attempted to establish a though understanding of nurses’ experiences in the management of patients in pain. The authors understood that despite improved knowledge on patient care, these patients were still suffering from issues in relation to pain and nurses are the primary health professionals which can help relieve these symptoms. The authors carried out their study as a phenomenological study covering 20 dialogues with 10 experienced nurses. The research process revealed that caring for patients in pain is a major challenge for many nurses and nurses seem to feel a moral obligation to ease patient’s pain. Moreover, these nurses feel that they face a challenge in managing patient’s pain in t erms of how they read their patient, how they deal with moral conflicts, and organizational issues. The authors also concluded that nurses require different patterns of knowledge and a favourable work environment in order to improve their pain management skills. In the study by Al-Shaer, et.al., (2011), the nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding pain assessment and intervention was considered. The authors undertook their study as a non-experimental, descriptive design, based on a convenience sample of 129 registered nurses working in various units of a Midwestern metropolitan hospital. The authors covered registered nurses on their knowledge and attitudes on pain management and the results indicated that their knowledge of pain management principles and interventions seem to be insufficient. Although the results of this study do indicate high knowledge scores, some nurses indicate an inadequate ability to care for patients experiencing pain. The authors were also able to a cknowledge the fact that pain is a subjective experience and that nurses must not base their assessments on their personal beliefs of judgments. Critical review 1. Appraisal of method In the study by Blondal, the problem was specifically and clearly stated by the authors and it had sufficient background information in order to