The effectiveness of a disaster training programme for healthcare workers in Greece

Recent natural disasters have made disaster training a public priority. Multiple methods of disaster preparedness training have been established in hospitals worldwide. Nevertheless, researchers have not yet discovered the most effective method for training hospital personnel in the area of disaster preparedness.

The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that a brief educational intervention would improve hospital staff knowledge about the hospital disaster plan and procedures.

A quasi-experimental design was used. The intervention group included 56 professionals and the comparison group included 35 professionals in Greece. The intervention group attended a 5-h course that addressed the basic principles of hospital disaster management. A structured questionnaire was used to estimate the participants' changes in knowledge. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, one-way ANOVA and chi-square test were used to analyse the data.

The intervention resulted in a significant improvement in knowledge. The mean score was significantly higher immediately after the intervention programme [86; standard error (SE): 2] than before (44.5; SE: 1.7) (P<0.001). The mean score 1 month later was significantly lower (77.2; SE: 2.3) than that immediately after the intervention programme (P<0.001), but significantly higher than the mean score before the intervention programme (P<0.001). Participants in the control group achieved a score of 40 (SE: 2.4), which was significantly lower than the scores of the intervention group after the course (P<0.001).

The disaster training course had a great benefit for the participants. This study suggests that a brief educational intervention is beneficial, but more must be done.