Disaster and Emergency Management: Canadian Nurses' Perceptions of Preparedness on Hospital Front Lines

Abstract

Introduction:Three years following the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a national, Web-based survey of Canadian nurses was conducted to assess perceptions of preparedness for disasters and access to support mechanisms, particularly for nurses in emergency and critical care units.Hypotheses:The following hypotheses were tested: (1) nurses' sense of preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks and naturally occurring disasters will be higher than for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN)-type disasters associated with terrorist attacks; (2) perceptions of preparedness will vary according to previous outbreak experience; and (3) perceptions of personal preparedness will be related to perceived institutional preparedness.Methods:Nurses from emergency departments and intensive care units across Canada were recruited via flyer mailouts and e-mail notices to complete a 30-minute online survey.Results:A total of 1,543 nurses completed the survey (90% female; 10% male). The results indicate that nurses feel unprepared to respond to large-scale disasters/attacks. The sense of preparedness varied according to the outbreak/disaster scenario with nurses feeling least prepared to respond to a CBRN event. A variety of socio-demographic factors, notably gender, previous outbreak experience (particularly with SARS), full-time vs. part-time job status, and region of employment also were related to perceptions of risk. Approximately 40% of respondents were unaware if their hospital had an emergency plan for a large-scale outbreak. Nurses reported inadequate access to resources to support disaster response capacity and expressed a low degree of confidence in the preparedness of Canadian healthcare institutions for future outbreaks.Conclusions:Canadian nurses have indicated that considerably more training and information are needed to enhance preparedness for frontline healthcare workers as important members of the response community.

Are nurses prepared to respond to a bioterrorist attack: a narrative synthesis

“…The literature considered in this review advocates some innovative institutional approaches to training delivery to encourage information retention (O’Sullivan et al. 2008, Grimes & Mendias 2010).…”

“…Significance levels were set by all researchers to allow for statistical correlations to be identified and the five studies acknowledged both statistically significant and insignificant findings. O’Sullivan et al. (2008) reported few relationships between the data gathered and despite using statistical packages, presented their results descriptively.…”

“…Katz et al. (2006), O’Sullivan et al. (2008) and Rebmann and Buettner Mohr (2008) incorporated questions from earlier surveys in their questionnaires, however, only Katz et al.…”

“…Similarly, Katz et al. (2006) found 80% of nurses had not received any bioterrorism training whereas, O’Sullivan et al. (2008) report that 59·8% of their respondents claimed their institution did not supply continuing education for emergency planning.…”

Risk Communication and Radiological/Nuclear Terrorism: A Strategic View

“…Among the groups surveyed have been first responders (DiMaggio et al 2005), healthcare workers (Qureshi et al 2005), hospital employees (Cone and Cummings 2006), physicians and nurses (Lanzilotti et al 2002), and hospital-based nurses (Veneema et al 2008;O'Sullivan et al 2008). A crucial finding of this research is that "there is generally a lower level of expressed willingness to respond to radiation incidents than to many, or sometimes even all other, threats.…”