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

Abstract

The unprecedented and prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has escalated the gravity of disasters in the field of mental health. Nurses are health care providers who play a pivotal role in all phases of disaster management and psychiatric nurses are required to be prepared and equipped with competencies to respond to such disasters. This cross‐sectional study aimed to investigate the effects of mental health nurses’ professional quality of life on disaster nursing competencies. This study adhered to the STROBE checklist for observational research. Data were collected from 196 mental health nurses working in various settings, including hospitals and communities in South Korea. Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue were measured using the Korean version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale. Disaster nursing competencies were measured using the Disaster Nursing Preparedness‐Response Competencies Scale. Multiple regression analysis showed that compassion satisfaction (β = 0.36, P < 0.001) was the most potent predictor of disaster nursing competencies of mental health nurses, followed by participation in disaster nursing (β = 0.15, P = 0.023) and disaster nursing‐related education (β = 0.15, P = 0.026); these factors explained 30.1% of the variance. Education programmes ensuring that mental health nurses are adequately prepared for disaster management should include theoretical content as well as simulation training using virtual situations that resemble actual disasters. Further, supportive leadership and work environments that encourage cohesive teamwork are needed to increase compassion satisfaction of nurses.

Disaster nursing competencies of rural nurses during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

“…In this study, rural nurses with prior disaster nursing education showed higher disaster nursing competencies than their counterparts without prior education. These results are consistent with the findings of Jang et al (2022) Discussing the result of the current study on higher disaster nursing competencies among rural nurses with prior education on the related field, prior research shows that, conventionally, the nursing staff pool tends to be smaller in rural than in urban areas, and the same often occurs regarding the difficulty to attract and to retain nurses (Fahs, 2021). Further, efforts to recruit and to retain newly graduated nurses in rural areas have generally emphasized nursing managerial support and situational learning as advantages (Lea & Cruickshank, 2017).…”

“…Ohta et al (2020) Furthermore, prior participation in disaster nursing care was a predictor of rural nurses' disaster nursing competencies in our sample. On this topic, the literature shows that nurses who participated in disaster nursing demonstrated higher confidence levels in emergency nursing (Tzeng et al, 2016) and higher disaster nursing competencies (Jang et al, 2022;Labrague et al, 2016) than those without such experience. Moreover, nurses with rich clinical experience are more willing to participate in disaster nursing (Sonneborn et al, 2018).…”

“…One study has described disaster nursing competencies as being influenced by nurses' age, career, position, and education level (Jang et al, 2021). Others (Jang et al, 2022;Tzeng et al, 2016) have described nurses' prior disaster experience, knowledge, and training as important predictors of such competencies. However, studies exploring the factors associated with disaster nursing competencies among rural nurses are limited, and no studies have investigated this topic during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…A questionnaire survey was administered to collect respondents' demographic characteristics in accordance with a previous study (Jang et al, 2022) on nurses' disaster competencies during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Nursing Interventions in Critically Ill Patients in Respiratory Medicine

“…During this treatment period, nurses and healthcare providers play a key role in all stages of disaster management. Nurses need to be prepared and capable of responding to such disasters [ 7 ]. Unmet care needs and poor quality of care for this resident population have been widely reported [ 1 ].…”