Nursing Students’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Disaster Preparedness: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Nations are considered to be within at hazard of crises, which create greater challenges for healthcare systems and healthcare workers. Nursing staff and student nurse play a critical role in responding to disasters, and having knowledge and a skill on disasters preparedness is crucial. The aim of the current study was to investigate the nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding disaster preparedness. Methods: A cross-sectional study included a sample of 206 nursing students at College of Applied Medical Sciences in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Undergraduate students from all years were asked to complete an online questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding disaster preparedness. Results: The results/findings showed that more than two thirds of the participants had adequate knowledge (69%) and positive attitude (72%) regarding disaster preparedness; however, most of them had inadequate practice (84%). There were statistically significant relations between nursing students' knowledge and their GPA (p = 0.003), students' attitude and their gender (p = 0.014), and students' practice and their age (p = 0.008). Moreover, nursing students' knowledge was positively correlated with their attitude (r = 0.194). Conclusion and Recommendations:Most of participated students had adequate knowledge and a positive attitude toward disaster preparedness; most of them had inadequate practice. Continuing education and training of student nurse on disaster preparedness is critical to enhance their knowledge and practices; and to be proficient in preparation for and management of any potential disasters or risks. The findings of the current study offer data that would help in the creation of educational policies for student nurse about disaster preparedness.

Fire Disaster Preparedness and Life Safety Program for Preparatory School Students Mentored by Community Health Nursing Students

“…Meanwhile, the post program enhancements is entirely attributed to the effect of the fire preparedness and life safety program. In this stream, Saudi study (Mohamed et al, 2023), found that more than two thirds of nursing students had adequate knowledge and however, most of them had inadequate practice regarding disaster preparedness. Besides, a statistically significant relations was found between nursing students' knowledge and students' practice.…”

“…A dissimilar result reported in Thailand by Musigapong and Phanprasit (2013), who claimed that students acquainted information from multimedia such as television, teacher, newspaper, and internet. Also, Saudi study (Mohamed et al, 2023) declared that social media apps was the most frequent source of information (78.8%), followed by the internet (69.7%), family and friends (52.3%), books and school resources (43.7%), and television (32.4%). As to preparatory school students' knowledge and attitude towards fire disaster preparedness (preprogram), majority of students had unsatisfactory knowledge, and two thirds held positive attitude.…”

Enhancing Nurses’ Disaster Management and Preparedness: Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Online Educational Program Through a Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Nursing faculty members can also play a crucial role by implementing comprehensive curricula that cover all phases of disaster and its management, preparing nursing students to be proficient in disaster preparedness. 36 Future research is also warranted to determine the effectiveness of using other educational strategies on nurses’ knowledge, skills, and attitude towards disaster preparedness. The study’s implications should be disseminated widely among nurses and nursing educators to raise awareness and improve the profession’s capacity and competency through disaster management training and educational initiatives.…”