Rapid Response: Managing Wounds During Disasters

Date & Time

July 17, 2025 | 2:00 PM ET | 1 Hour

About

From infection control to logistical challenges, discover practical strategies for managing wounds during and after disasters — designed to reduce risk and support vulnerable populations in any care setting.

In partnership with the American Red Cross, this webinar features front-line insights from Linda Fahey, Chief Nurse of the American Red Cross, and Myra Varnado, CWON and national wound care expert.

Disasters overwhelm healthcare systems and nurses are often the first on scene. In these high-pressure environments, wound care becomes more complex, with limited resources and elevated risk of infection.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

Identify two wound types commonly seen during disaster events.

Apply five key principles of wound triage and management.

Recognize three post-disaster factors that increase risk.

Implement three practical nursing strategies for shelter-based care.

Register now and establish disaster-ready wound care skills grounded in real-world experience from Red Cross and front-line clinical leaders.

If you cannot attend the live webinar, we still encourage you to register, as all registrants will receive an email with a link to the recording and resources.

Register Now

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Presenters

Linda Fahey, DNP, RN, CENP

Chief Nurse | American Red Cross

Linda Fahey is the Chief Nurse for the American Red Cross. In that role, she provides leadership for Nursing and Health practice across the enterprise with a focus on recruitment and engagement of health professionals to meet the mission of the Red Cross. Fahey also responds with her colleagues as a Disaster Health Supervisor, providing care as well as leadership to support the Red Cross Mission during disasters.

She has a proven track record for providing inspirational leadership to guide a team in delivering high-quality, customer-focused care with over 30 years of executive healthcare experience. Fahey started her career as a Navy nurse, then added both academic and hospital experiences to round out her career in nursing, expanding to executive roles in health care settings while maintaining adjunct faculty status to support nursing education.
Myra Varnado, BS, RN, CWON, CFCN

Wound and Ostomy Nurse Consultant

Myra Varnado has been a WOC Nurse for over 20 years, graduating from Emory University WONEC in 1996. Varnado previously worked for and retired from the LSU Health System in New Orleans as the Manager of WOC Clinical Services and Wound Healing Clinic and later served as CNO for an outpatient wound healing company, Wound Care Specialists, which served over 100 wound centers in 12 states.

She is active with the WON®, having served on the Professional Practice Committee for 8 years and as Chair for four years. She has served on the WOCN® Wound Guidelines Task Force for the past 15 years and is the primary author of both the original and updated versions of the WOCN Clinical Practice Guideline: "Management of Wounds in Patients with Lower Extremity Neuropathic Disease". Varnado has published numerous papers on a variety of wound topics, from Diabetes Charcot Foot Management to Frostbite and Biofilm. She is also an active member of the AAWC and serves as a Host Committee Member for that organization's bi-annual SAWC conferences.

Varnado’s clinical interests are telemedicine, wearable robotics, and the use of other advanced technologies, population health, diabetes limb preservation, and the management of traumatic injury wounds. She provides a variety of educational programs, including Best Foot Forward!, for CFCN candidates, as well as onsite Wound Certification Prep Courses and online CE programs for Curaport, a web-based national education firm. She resides in the greater New Orleans area.