The findings from this review place an emphasis on hospitals to implement policies to address lack of preparedness among their employees. Furthermore, this review highlights the benefit of further research and provision of well-grounded disaster exercises that mimic actual events to enhance the preparedness of the nursing workforce.

Nurse educators may consider the use of formulation and implementation of empirically tested interventions to reduce stress while enhancing coping skills.

Hospital and nurse administrators play an important role in promoting supportive structures for daily professional practice for nurse managers through staffing, organisational resources, support services, leadership and stress management training.

Hospital administrators should consider the development and formulation of disaster management protocols and provide appropriate disaster nursing education and training. Nursing curricula should incorporate basic principles of disaster management into nursing courses as a framework for addressing this critical deficit.

Strengthening nursing students' positive coping skills may be helpful for them to effectively deal with various stressors during their educational experiences while maximizing learning. Implementing empirically tested approaches maybe useful to prevent the recurrence of stress and lessen its impact such as stress management counseling, counseling programs, establishing peer and family support systems, and formulating hospital policies that will support nursing students.