Diary of a Medical Mission Trip prevention levels guide
Reflecting on the Diary of Medical Mission Trip videos about the 2010 Haiti earthquake, propose one nursing intervention at each of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, say which disaster phase the three fall under and why, and name the people or agencies you would work with.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 14, 2026
Two frameworks, deliberately crossed
The prompt crosses two frameworks, and the second question exists to check you have not merged them. Levels of prevention describe what an intervention does to the natural history of a disease or injury: primary prevents it occurring, secondary detects or limits it once begun, tertiary reduces the long-term disability that follows. Phases of a disaster describe when in the event you are acting: mitigation and preparedness before, response during, recovery afterwards. The two are independent axes. Distributing water purification tablets in a camp is primary prevention carried out during the response phase. Screening arrivals for cholera is secondary prevention in that same phase. Physiotherapy and prosthetic fitting for crush and amputation survivors is tertiary prevention beginning in response and continuing through recovery. Filing screening under primary prevention is the classic error here, and it is precisely what the question is checking for. Say which axis you are using each time you classify something.
Choose interventions that fit the conditions the videos show, because a proposal assuming intact infrastructure reads as though you did not watch them. After the 2010 earthquake the constraints were collapsed hospitals, disrupted water and sanitation, a displaced population living in camps, and a cholera epidemic that arrived months later. Answer the phase question by justifying it rather than asserting it: if all three interventions are delivered while the emergency is still running, say response, and say what would distinguish that from recovery. The partners question deserves specifics too. Name the ministry of health, the international organisations coordinating the response, the non-governmental clinical providers, the military logistics that moved supplies, and the community health workers who reached people no clinic could, and give each a reason. One sentence on what your intervention would have needed and did not have is worth more than three that assume it was there.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Distinguish primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in a disaster setting.
- 02Distinguish the levels of prevention from the phases of a disaster cycle.
- 03Propose nursing interventions appropriate to a resource-limited response.
- 04Identify the agencies and partners a nurse would work through.
- 05Justify a phase classification rather than asserting it.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01One primary prevention intervention related to the disaster.
- 02One secondary prevention intervention.
- 03One tertiary prevention intervention.
- 04The disaster phase the three fall under, with reasoning.
- 05The people or agencies you would work with and why.
Three interventions, one phase, then the partners
The situation the videos describe
Set out the conditions the response was working in.
Primary prevention
Propose an intervention that prevents new harm occurring.
Secondary prevention
Propose early detection or limitation of harm already begun.
Tertiary prevention
Propose rehabilitation or limitation of long-term disability.
Phase and partners
Classify the phase and name the agencies with their contributions.
Disaster response structures and who does what
Recommended databases
- StatPearls via NCBI Bookshelf
- Healthy People, ODPHP
- World Health Organization
- PubMed
- The assigned video series
Search sequence
- 1.Watch the videos and note what the responders actually had available.
- 2.Confirm the definitions of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
- 3.Read the phases of the disaster management cycle separately.
- 4.Look up which agencies were involved in the 2010 Haiti response.
- 5.Check each intervention is possible with the resources described.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
EMS Disaster Response
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Structure of a disaster response and the phases interventions are placed within.
- 02
EMS Mass Casualty Triage
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
The secondary prevention work of sorting and early treatment in a mass casualty setting.
- 03
Public Health
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Definitions of the three prevention levels and the agencies that deliver them.
- 04
Social Determinants of Health - Healthy People 2030
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion · 2024
Framework for the longer-term conditions a tertiary intervention has to work within.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Confusing prevention levels with disaster phases and answering one question twice.
- Classifying screening as primary prevention when it is secondary.
- Proposing interventions that require infrastructure the setting does not have.
- Naming agencies without saying what each would contribute.
- Repeating examples already posted, which this prompt explicitly rules out.
- Asserting a disaster phase without explaining the choice.
Submission checklist
- All three prevention levels are represented and correctly classified.
- The interventions are feasible in a post-earthquake setting.
- The disaster phase is named and justified.
- Prevention level and phase are kept distinct.
- Each agency named has a stated role.
- The examples are not ones a previous student has already given.
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Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.