Emergency Preparedness and Perceived Competence of Health Care Providers in Disaster: An Egyptian Study | ||
| Alexandria Scientific Nursing Journal | ||
| Volume 18, Issue 2, December 2016, Pages 1-14 PDF (299.47 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research articles | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/asalexu.2016.208640 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Azza Hassan Hussein* ; Naglaa Abd El Aziz Mahmoud | ||
| Nursing Administration, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| An effective healthcare system response to various disasters is paramount; however pertinent related research is still in its infancy, especially in middle- and low-income countries. Objective: Assess nurses’ and physicians’ familiarity with readiness in managing disaster and emergency situations. Setting: The emergency department at Alexandria Main University hospital. Subjects: 108 nurses and 42 physicians. Tool: The 47-item Disaster Readiness Questionnaire that incorporated the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ-45 items) and two open ended-questions. Results: The findings revealed that nurses are less likely to report familiarity than physicians in managing emergency and disaster situations. Familiarity with emergency preparedness terms and activities, incidents command system and ethical issues in triage, and epidemiology and surveillance are rated as the highest domains by the participants. Conclusion: Both nurses and physicians had significant gaps in their familiarity with the emergency preparedness in disaster management and raised concerns about lack of training, unavailability of strategic and operational plans, and unfamiliarity with roles, procedures and assignment in disaster situations. Recommendations: It is proposed that hospital managers must look for opportunities to effectively adopt national standards to manage disasters and include nurses and physicians in major related learning activities, because experience has suggest a somewhat low overall perceived competence in managing disaster situations. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Disaster; Emergency; Preparedness Health care providers | ||
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