Emergency preparedness information among nurses in response to disasters

Abstract

Disaster preparedness is useful to mitigate disaster impacts by well organizing before a disaster occurred. Disaster preparedness information could be carried out by government, organization, community, and individual to recognize the readiness to respond to emergency or disaster situations. Information on emergency preparedness in disasters includes triage and basic first aid, detection of biological agents, epidemiology and clinical decision making, communication and connectivity. This study aims to identify understanding of emergency preparedness information among emergency and intensive care nurses in response to the disasters in the provincial hospital of Aceh, Indonesia. A descriptive exploratory using a cross-sectional conducted in this study. The population of the study was all the nurses who worked in the emergency department and intensive care units. The quota sampling technique was conducted on 60 nurses in both units. The instrument in the study was used the standardized Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic tests including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation related to the sub-scales of the measurement. The results showed that 55% respondents have a well understanding of the information (mean = 3.36). For triage and basic first aid, the detection of biological agents, communication and connectivity sub-scales were found in well understood with values of 63.3%, 56.7%, and 53.3% respectively. Meanwhile, low understandings were found on epidemiology and clinical decision making with the value 48.3%. The study concludes that emergency preparedness information, namely triage and basic first aid, the detection of biological agents, communication and connectivity have higher score and well understood among nurses in both units in response to the disasters in hospital than epidemiology and clinical decision making sub-scales.