Emergency nurse disaster preparedness during mass gatherings: a cross-sectional survey of emergency nurses' perceptions in hospitals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

ObjectivesTo assess hospital emergency nurses' self-reported knowledge, role awareness and skills in disaster response with respect to the Hajj mass gathering in Mecca.DesignCross-sectional online survey with primary data collection and non-probabilistic purposive sample conducted in late 2014.SettingAll 4 public hospitals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.Participants106 registered nurses in hospital emergency departments.Main outcome measureAwareness, knowledge, skills and perceptions of emergency nurses in Mecca with regard to mass gathering disaster preparedness.ResultsAlthough emergency nurses' clinical role awareness in disaster response was reported to be high, nurses reported limited knowledge and awareness of the wider emergency and disaster preparedness plans, including key elements of their hospital strategies for managing a mass gathering disaster. Over half of the emergency nurses in Mecca's public hospitals had not thoroughly read the plan, and almost 1 in 10 were not even aware of its existence. Emergency nurses reported seeing their main role as providing timely general clinical assessment and care; however, fewer emergency nurses saw their role as providing surveillance, prevention, leadership or psychological care in a mass gathering disaster, despite all these broader roles being described in the hospitals' emergency disaster response plans. Emergency nurses' responses to topics where there are often misconceptions on appropriate disaster management indicated a significant knowledge deficit with only 1 in 3 nurses at best or 1 in 6 at worst giving correct answers. Respondents identified 3 key training initiatives as opportunities to further develop their professional skills in this area: (1) hospital education sessions, (2) the Emergency Management Saudi Course, (3) bespoke short courses in disaster management.ConclusionsRecommendations are suggested to help enhance clinical and educational efforts in disaster preparedness.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of emergency department staff towards disaster and emergency preparedness at tertiary health care hospital in central Saudi Arabia

“…However, they were not trained for the same. 11 A study by Gundran et al, 29 also conducted a similar study including 91 participants. Most of the participants, 98.4% in the present study and 97.8% in the study by Gundran et al, 29 considered training necessary for all healthcare workers.…”

“…A previous study assessing the knowledge and skills among emergency nurses showed that they were confident in terms of disaster handling, but they were not trained for the same. 11 Another study was performed on nurses reported average percentage scores in the domains of knowledge, attitudes and practice towords disaster and emergency preparedness. 12 A growing number of studies in the literature reported facts about Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's disaster management and preparedness.…”

Nursing Provision in Psychological Aspect Management of Natural Disaster

“…Di antara 10 jurnal yang direview, terdapat 5 jurnal yang memiliki desain cross sectional (Alzahrani & Kyratsis, 2017), (Berhanu, Abrha, Ejigu, & Woldemichael, 2016), (Labrague et al, 2016), (Tzeng et al, 2016), dan (Seyedin et al, 2015) , 4 jurnal yang menggunakan penelitian kualitatif (Rabiei, Nakhaee, & Pourhosseini, 2014), (Yu et al, 2013), (Moghaddam, Saeed, Khanjani, & Arab, 2014) dan (Shabanikiya, Gorgi, Seyedin, & Jafari, 2016) dan 1 jurnal yang menggunakan Studi deskriptif (Yan et al, 2015). Dari 10 jurnal yang direview, terdapat 9 jurnal menggunakan program pendidikan dan pelatihan manajemen bencana (Alzahrani & Kyratsis, 2017); (Berhanu et al, 2016); (Rabiei et al, 2014); (Yu et al, 2013); (Moghaddam et al, 2014); (Labrague et al, 2016); (Tzeng et al, 2016); (Yan et al, 2015); dan (Seyedin et al, 2015) Pernyataan peneliti dari penelitian tersebut didukung oleh teori Happell (2009) yang menyatakan bahwa perawat berada dalam posisi untuk membantu mengatasi kesehatan jiwa pada saat krisis atau bencana, maka diperlukan dukungan psikologis berupa pengetahuan, yang mana pengetahuan tersebut terkait dengan teknik intervensi krisis dan bencana yang merupakan suatu keterampilan klinis yang penting bagi semua perawat, di luar dari tatanan klinis atau praktik spesialis (Happell et al, 2009dalam Stuart, 2016. Disamping itu, pelatihan manajemen penanggulangan bencana sangat jarang dilakukan kepada tenaga perawat di pelayanan maupun di pendidikan, sehingga keterampilan, pengetahuan dan keahlian perawat dalam penanggulangan bencana tidak sesuai prosedur dan membuat penangganan bencana berjalan lambat dan tidak efektif ((Tzeng et al, 2016); (Yan et al, 2015); dan (Yu et al, 2013)).…”

“…Pada bagian selatan dan timur Indonesia terdapat sabuk vulkanik (volcanic arc) yang memanjang dari pulau Sumatera-Jawa-Nusa-Tenggara-Sulawesi, yang sisinya berupa pegunungan vulkanik dan dataran rendah yang sebagian besar didominasi oleh rawarawa. Kondisi tersebut sangat berpotensi sekaligus terjadinya rawan bencana seperti letusan gunung berapi, gempa bumi, tsunami, banjir dan tanah longsor (Alzahrani & Kyratsis, 2017).…”

“…Kejadian bencana alam dapat menimbulkan permasalahan di bidang kesehatan antara lain lumpuhnya ketersediaan air bersih, masalah sanitasi lingkungan, stres atau gangguan kejiwaan (Alzahrani & Kyratsis, 2017). Oleh karena itu diperlukan langkah-langkah strategis misalnya kesiapsiagaan dari perawat itu sendiri (Labrague et al, 2016).…”