Nurse Educators' Role in Hospital Disaster Management: A Qualitative Study

Area of Science:

• Disaster preparedness and response
• Healthcare management
• Nursing education

Background:

• Effective hospital disaster management (HDM) requires clear roles for all healthcare professionals.
• Nurse educators possess potential to significantly contribute to disaster response efforts.
• Current utilization of nurse educators in HDM is suboptimal due to undefined roles and preparedness issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore stakeholder perceptions of nurse educators' roles in HDM.
• To identify core competencies essential for nurse educators in disaster scenarios.
• To determine necessary training areas for enhancing nurse educators' participation in disasters.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative hermeneutic-phenomenological design.
• 38 stakeholders (doctors, nurses, administrators, educators) interviewed and in focus groups in Kerala, India.
• Data collected via in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in December 2023.

Main Results:

• Identified 7 themes: preparedness gaps, underutilization of secondary stakeholders, training/coordination issues, training needs, fear of competence/safety, role confusion, elitism, and social responsibility.
• Stakeholders found roles, preparedness, clinical exposure, and competency development unsatisfactory.
• Nurse educators can contribute to training, supervision, documentation, and psychosocial support when adequately prepared.

Conclusions:

• Nurse educators are valuable assets for HDM but are underutilized due to unclear roles and limited readiness.
• Enhancing nurse educator competencies and integrating them into disaster plans can build surge capacity.
• Improving role clarity and preparedness will optimize nurse educators' contribution to hospital disaster response and coordination.