Nurses’ Preparedness and Perceived Competence in Managing Disasters

Abstract

Nursing comprises the largest healthcare workforce, and yet there is very little research examining nurses' readiness for disaster.

Midwives’ Professional Competency for Preventing Neonatal Mortality in Disasters

“…In this study, the history of midwifery had no significant relationship with professional competency. In Buck et al study, the working experience at the city hospitals did not affect the perceived competence of the nurses in the disasters [12]. However, the professional competency of midwives who work in the maternity ward was more which could be due to the nature of this work in this ward that midwives mostly need the skills and the knowledge related to the infants and the childbirth.…”

A guide to emergency preparedness and disaster nursing education resources

“…Evidence supports that nurses are not prepared to respond to disaster situations (Baack & Alfred 2013;Fung et al, 2009;Garbutt et al, 2008). As disaster nursing is not a focus in all academic curricula (Coyle et al, 2007;Garbutt et al, 2008), and research suggests that many nurses do not feel comfortable in responding to disaster situations in the workplace, additional steps need to be taken to empower nurses to acquire and maintain disaster preparedness education and skills.…”

“…Although it is unclear when duty to perform professional obligations supplants duty to safeguard protection from harmful situations (Twedell, 2009), evidence demonstrates that lack of disaster preparedness education (Garbutt et al, 2008), lack of communication skills in mitigating disaster situations (Coyle et al, 2007), and lack of self-efficacy and perceived disaster nursing knowledge (Baack & Alfred, 2013;Melnikov, Itzhaki, & Kagan, 2014) may skew the judgment process and effect nurses' preparedness to report for duty. Because it is also clear from the second provision of the Code that "the nurse's primary commitment is to the patient," (ANA, 2015, p. 5), and from the fifth provision that nurses are "committed to lifelong learning," including "continuing education and self-study" (ANA, 2015, p. 22), emergency preparedness competencies should be viewed as a professional priority, to endow all nurses with current preparedness knowledge that will ultimately affect their ability to provide care when society needs it the most; that is, during disasters.…”

“…First developed by Wisniewski et al (2004), the threepart EPIQ survey is a result of the collaborative efforts of the Wisconsin Nurses Association, Wisconsin Division of Public Health, and Wisconsin Nursing Coalition, to advance emergency preparedness research and assess the training needs of registered nurses to respond to disaster situations (Garbutt et al, 2008;McKibbin et al, 2011;Wisniewski et al, 2004). Today, the EPIQ is the primary instrument used in scientific research to comprehensively assess nurses' perceived knowledge of emergency preparedness (Baack & Alfred, 2013;McKibbin et al, 2011).…”

“…Nurses' ability to rapidly and effectively detect, manage, and mitigate disaster events can affect patients' physical, emotional, and psychological well-being (World Health Organization [WHO] & International Council of Nurses [ICN], 2009). For this reason, emergency preparedness competencies are paramount for all nurses to meet diversified patient demands, including the needs of vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children, and persons with mental, visual, and mobility impairments during disaster situations (Baack & Alfred, 2013).…”