Knowledge, experiences and training needs of health professionals about disaster preparedness and response in southwest Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, the magnitude and intensity of disasters have been vividly rising globally due to the forces of nature or man. This study aimed at assessing the perceived knowledge, experiences and training needs of health professionals regarding disasters, their prevention and management in Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution based cross-sectional survey was conducted on 377 health professionals taken from 9 randomly selected districts out of 18. All health professionals working at health offices, hospitals and health centers were included. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire which was developed by the investigators after reviewing the relevant literature in the field. Data were coded and entered into SPSS 20 software for cleaning and analysis. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were done. RESULTS: The majority (85.1%) of the participants were able to define the concept of disaster from various perspectives; 9.7% did not know about it at all and 5.2% could describe the concept partially or misconceived it. The majority (84.3%) agreed that disaster has direct public health consequences on humans. The main public health consequence of disaster the participants mentioned was environmental pollution (65.8%). Malaria, measles and diarrhoeal diseases accounted for 35.5%, 33.1% and 10.5% of the epidemics, respectively. Only 20.6% of the respondents were trained on disaster related topics in the last two years. The majority felt that they had poor knowledge on early warning indicators of drought (48.0%) and flood (48.0%). Simialry, 50.8%, 47.7%, 51.1% and 42.6% of the participants had poor knowledge on preparedness to drought, preparedness to flood, response to drought, response to flood. On composite scale, they generally perceived to have adequate (29.4%), moderate (32.4%) and poor (38.2%) knowledge about early warning information bout, preparedness for and response to common disasters. A vast majority (92.8%) reported that they need training on disaster preparedness, management and response. CONCLUSION: A considerable number of professionals had limited understanding about the concept of disaster and response to certain specific disasters. They also had limited opportunities for training,despite their felt needs. Therefore, training should be provided focusing on the specific gaps identified.

Facing the Coronavirus Pandemic: An Integrated Continuing Education Program in Taiwan

“…In this way, the department could understand the knowledge gaps in pandemic prevention in different categories and make individualized teaching arrangements for different categories. Compared with previous studies investigating the knowledge gaps between different healthcare professionals [ 19 , 20 , 21 ], this study revealed that physicians performed better than others among most of the ten basic questions. Nurses were less knowledgeable about administrative procedures, such as reporting suspected cases.…”

The Effect of Internal Disaster Management Intervention Program on Nursing Staff Knowledge and Skills

“…Tanta Scientific Nursing Journal (table 1), majority of nursing staff not attended training courses. Berhanu (2016) (16) found that a considerable number of professionals had limited opportunities for training.…”

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 beberapa jurnal yang direview tersebut diatas, terdapat 4 jurnal yang menyimpulkan bahwa pengetahuan, keterampilan, kesadaran diri, minat, intelektual, kerjasama, dan motivasi perlu dipersiapkan untuk mendukung penanggulangan bencana (Alzahrani & Kyratsis, 2017), (Labrague et al, 2016), (Tzeng et al, 2016), dan (Seyedin et al, 2015). Sementara 5 jurnal (Rabiei et al, 2014), (Yu et al, 2013), (Berhanu et al, 2016), (Yan et al, 2015), dan (Moghaddam et al, 2014) yang menyimpulkan bahwa perawat perlu mempersiapkan diri pada aspek psikologis berupa kognitif, intelektual, minat, sikap, pendidikan keterampilan klinis dan pemahaman penyelamatan dengan prinsip-prinsip dasar dukungan psikososial. Sementara 1 jurnal (Shabanikiya et al, 2016) Seyedin, H et al, 2015;Luo, Y et al, 2013).…”