Determinants of Nurse Preparedness in Disaster Management: A Cross-Sectional Study Among the Community Health Nurses in Coastal Areas

Abstract

Purpose Because Indonesia has a high risk of natural disasters, nurse preparedness is necessary to reduce and prevent deaths in the aftermath of such disasters. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with nurse preparedness in disaster management among a sample of community health nurses in coastal areas. Patients and Methods A cross-sectional study was undertaken from May to August 2020. The sample consisted of 142 nurses who worked at six Public Health Centers in Pangandaran, West Java, Indonesia. Participants were recruited using the total sampling technique. The data were collected using the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire and analyzed using Chi-Square and binary logistic regression. Results Of the 142 respondents, 54.24% had a high level of preparedness. Multivariate analysis showed that nurses with higher levels of preparedness had worked between 6 and 10 years (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 12.755, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.653–61.314). Respondents who lacked disaster training were less likely to have a high level of disaster preparedness (AOR: 4.631, 95% CI: 1.604–13.367). Respondents who had never served as disaster volunteers were also less likely to have disaster preparedness (AOR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.053–0.616). Conclusion With nearly half of the respondents (45.77%) having a low level of disaster preparedness, this topic needs more attention from the government and healthcare workers. Several actions are needed to improve community nurses’ disaster preparedness: providing them with routine disaster-related training, encouraging them to serve as volunteers in various disaster conditions, and offering them useful disaster-related information.

Disaster preparedness knowledge and its relationship with triage decision-making among hospital and pre-hospital emergency nurses - Ardabil, Iran

“…The results of the present study showed a significant relationship between disaster preparedness knowledge and work during a disaster, which was consistent with the results of previous studies [ 3 , 5 , 39 , 40 ]. Chegini et al found that emergency nurses with previous disaster response experience had significant levels of disaster core competencies compared to those with limited disaster response experience [ 15 ] Emaliyawati et al reported nurses who have never volunteered in a disaster situation have a lower level of disaster preparedness [ 39 ]. Nurses from disaster-prone communities can gain experience by volunteering to practice.…”

“…EPIQ is a 44-item instrument that was developed by Wisniewski et al in 2004 [41] and has been used in several studies [19,[37][38][39]. The questionnaire consists of two parts.…”

“…Hospital and pre-hospital emergency nurses play an important role in disaster response. A review of the literature shows a wide range of nursing functions, roles, training, education, and background; however, no study has concluded that nurses are fully or even adequately prepared with all the necessary knowledge on disaster preparedness [3,8,10,11,[37][38][39][40], Moreover, few studies, such as the Schneider's 2019 study [14], have focused on the relationship between everyday elements such as triage decisions by disaster-prepared nurses.…”

Self-perceived preparedness and training needs of healthcare personnel on humanitarian mission: a pre- and post-deployment survey

“…First, predeployment training should focus on the entire spectrum of medical professionals [ 36 ]. Greater efforts should be made to meet nurses’ training needs because a lower preparedness rating was already demonstrated in the previous survey in 2017 and other research in the broader context of disaster preparedness [ 37 – 40 ]. Within this study, nurses indicated several core medical topics to be included in future training (e.g.…”

Evaluation of Disaster Simulation: Learning Process, Satisfaction, and Self-Confidence among Nursing Students

“…When viewed from the experience of attending seminars/workshops, most of the respondents (61.1%) have never attended meetings/workshops on disaster management or disaster emergencies. In fact, by participating in training seminars/workshops, nurses have the provision and experience in dealing with conditions where disasters occur [15]. While those in charge of disaster management programs in West Java are mostly nurses [16], they work in community health centers that have an important role in disaster conditions [17].…”