Emergency and Disaster Handling Preparedness Among Front Line Health Service Providing Nurses and Associated Factors at Emergency Department, at Amhara Regional State Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction Globally around 1.6 million individuals have died as a result of disasters per year. These disruptive events that happen in the world each day result in damage to individuals, families, and communities. Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted. All frontline health-care providers at the emergency departments of Amhara Regional State Referral Hospitals during the study period were considered as studied subjects. Data were collected through a self-administered technique. Once all essential data were collected, data were coded and entered into epidata manager (v4.6.0.2) statistical software. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the findings of this paper. Results The result of this research study showed that 66.7% were males and 33.3% were females with mean age of respondents being 31.2 ± 5.8. Among respondents, 54% (52.9) % did not have an understanding of disaster preparedness. As a result, the majority of participants, 52 (51%), have inadequate knowledge. Most respondents have adequate attitude (57.8%) and only a few, 12 (11.8%), of respondents were very familiar with regard to disaster and disaster handling preparedness. In multivariate logistic regression, receiving training on the subject (P = 0.000, AOR: 15.109. 95% CI: 3.525–64.769), respondents receiving simulation in the subject of disaster (P = 0.015, AOR: 4.855, 95% CI: 1.366–17.260) and having a direct personal/professional experience of disaster (P = 0.003, AOR: 5.703, 95% CI: 1.825–17.823) were significantly associated. Conclusion and Recommendation Disaster handling preparedness, knowledge and familiarity levels were below those expected for emergency department nurses. Capacity building through training, education and simulation is essential.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Frontline Health Care Workers to Disaster Risk Management in Private General Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

“…Level of knowledge towards disaster risk management : This study showed that 171(64%) of the participants had poor level of knowledge regarding disaster risk management, which is supported by reports of studies done in Amhara regional state and AA public hospitals ( 7 , 22 ). However, it is different from a similar study in Saudi Arabia and Jimma Zone, Ethiopia ( 23 , 24 ).…”

“…Around 1.6 million people have died because of disasters in the world that is approximately 65,000 deaths annually, and trillions of dollars in related damages have been lost, since 1990. Disasters are able to change the appearance of a developing nation suddenly and may collapse their years of achievement ( 5 - 7 ).…”

Familiarity with emergency preparedness and its predictors among nurses and physicians working at public hospitals in east Gojjam zone, northwest Ethiopia

“…This finding is consistent with other studies conducted in the USA, Northwest Arkansas, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, and Ethiopia. 13,16–20 As nurses and physicians are frontline employees in the emergency room, this data suggests that their familiarity with emergency and disaster preparedness is inadequate. The increasing number of mass casualties necessitates more significant attention to improving the competencies of these frontline health care workers in emergency preparedness through various strategies.…”

Hospital Disasters Preparedness for Mass-Casualty Incidents at Emergency Units in Northwest of Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This creates a vicious cycle of disaster and emergency events for Ethiopia and the African continent. 6 Despite Ethiopia’s double-digit economic growth over the last ten years, urban disasters, such as fire and other incidents, are rising due to urbanization. 7 Unlike in the past, besides drought, the risk of other disasters like floods, landslides, human epidemics, crop pests, forest and bushfires frequency, scale, and intensity of such disasters have been increasing due to different factors, including climate change.…”