Hospital staff readiness for disaster medical support

Abstract

Last decades increase in both disasters' frequency and severity have been recorded globally. Discrepancy between the available and required medical means and capabilities in the area of damage leads to increase of the workload of the hospitals in vicinity. The aim of this study is to analyze hospital staff readiness in case of disaster. In order to achieve the set goal 5-question dichotomous survey was performed between 54 hospital professionals. The questions of our survey are focused on knowledge about hospital Disaster medical support plan and the related medical staff obligations. Results are analyzed and presented by the means of the descriptive, comparative and graphic methods. Over 40% of the participants self-estimate their knowledge as insufficient about all the surveyed topics. There are only 2 questions, where over 50% of hospital staff are feeling confident in their knowledge. On the other hand, the comparative analysis reveals statistically significant difference between the declared awareness of hospital disaster medical support plan and related obligations, and lack of knowledge about self-protection, medical information flow and allocated resources for disaster management. The results of the performed analyses highlight the need of intensification of hospital staff medical information exchange on issues related to Disaster medical support plan, disaster medical support activities and resources management.

Mental health nurses’ disaster nursing competencies: A cross‐sectional study

“…The incidence of disasters has increased in recent years due to various reasons including climate change, thereby increasing the severity of the disasters, which have caused significant damage to individuals and communities (Baker et al 2019;Georgieva et al 2018;Labrague et al 2016;€ Oztekin et al 2016). As a result of the increased severity of disasters worldwide, nurses' role in patient care during disasters have been further emphasized (Labrague et al 2018), and there is a growing need for enhancing nurses' disaster response competencies (Loke & Fung 2014).…”

“…A disaster is defined as 'a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts' (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction 2009). The rising incidence of disasters and the severity of damage thus caused (Baker et al 2019;Georgieva et al 2018) have led to growing demands for disaster response competencies among nurses who provide care for victims during a disaster (Loke & Fung 2014) Previous studies on nurses' disaster nursing competencies have reported that nurses' disaster nursing competencies are strongly associated with previous disaster care experience(s) and disaster-related training (Labrague et al 2018); therefore, it is important to develop effective training programmes to enhance nurses' disaster nursing competencies. In addition, a scoping review (Al Thobaity et al 2017) identified the following as the most common domains of core disaster nursing competencies: communication, decontamination and safety, planning, command system, and ethics.…”

“…2019; Georgieva et al . 2018) have led to growing demands for disaster response competencies among nurses who provide care for victims during a disaster (Loke & Fung 2014). The International Council of Nurses (ICN) developed the Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 (International Council of Nursing and World Health Organization 2009), which included the Core Competencies of Disaster Nursing Version 1.0 (ICN CCDN V1.0).…”

Educational needs and disaster response readiness: A cross‐sectional study of clinical nurses

“…The world has been severely affected by the increasing prevalence of major disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and tsunamis (Georgieva et al., 2018). Natural and man‐made disasters over the past two decades have resulted in more than 800 million casualties and severe economic losses amounting to more than $50 billion (Zarei, 2016).…”