Nurse Perceptions of Knowledge and Preparedness for Disasters

The study aimed to determine the level of knowledge and perceptions of preparedness for disasters among nurses working in a tertiary university hospital.

The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of nurses working in a university hospital in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey (n = 340). The sample included 183 nurses who were determined using the OpenEpi program and the universal sampling method. The data were collected using the Sociodemographic Information Form and the Disaster Preparedness Perception Scale in Nurses (DPPSN) and analyzed using SPSS 22 software.

The mean age of the participants was 34.31 + 8.52 years; 83.1% were female, 66.1% had at least a bachelor's degree and worked in a surgical ward, 49.7% had been working for at least 11 years, and 58.5% had received training on disasters. Those who received disaster-related training received it mostly face to face (70.1%) from their institutions (91.6%) and in the form of 2-4 hours of training (75.7%); 52.5% had previously participated in a disaster-related drill, and 83.1% took on the role of caregiver during a disaster. The DPPSN mean score of the nurses involved in the study was found to be 3.53 ± 0.58 out of 5 points for the total scale.

The results of the study showed that nurses considered themselves partially adequate for disaster preparedness, in general.