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STN Webinar: When the Unthinkable Happens: Lessons from the Hawaii Wildfires and Fireworks Disaster

Date: November 19, 2025 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Events such as the Maui Wildfires and the Hawaii Fireworks Mass Casualty Incident exposed critical gaps and successes in emergency response, patient triage, resource coordination, and interdisciplinary care. By sharing these insights and strategies through this educational program, healthcare professionals will be equipped with actionable knowledge to improve preparedness, enhance resilience, and optimize outcomes during future large-scale burn emergencies.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Summarize key nursing and operational lessons learned from recent U.S. burn disasters—including the Maui Wildfires and the Hawaii Fireworks Mass Casualty Incident—and discuss their implications for trauma and burn surge readiness.
  2. Describe how limited preparedness, delayed coordination, and challenges with real-time information (e.g., burn bed counts, watchboard access) can directly impact patient outcomes, with special attention to pediatric, rural, and non-burn facilities.
  3. Identify three actionable steps trauma and burn nurses can take to strengthen readiness, including: (1) reinforcing pre-incident education and awareness of burn disaster resources, (2) leveraging just-in-time tools such as telemedicine and standardized handoff sheets, and (3) prioritizing mental health support for patients, families, and responders.
  4. Recognize the intersection of burn disaster readiness with broader all-hazards nursing preparedness, and outline how nursing leadership can better integrate with coalitions, emergency management, and specialty partners to improve coordination, communication and support during high-impact events.

Speaker: Annette Newman MS, RN, CCRN
Disaster Preparedness Consultant, Utah Hospital Association
Western Region Burn Disaster Coordinator, American Burn Association
State Coordinator, Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management
Network Operations and Hubsite Support, Pediatric Pandemic Network

 

Continuing Education
Society of Trauma Nurses is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. This program has been awarded 1.0 hour of continuing nursing education.