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

To identify stakeholders' perceptions of the role of the nurse educator in Hospital Disaster Management (HDM), determine the core competencies required for their effective participation, and establish training areas to enhance their participation during disasters.

A qualitative hermeneutic-phenomenological design was adopted with 38 stakeholders comprising doctors, clinical nurses, nurse administrators, and nurse educators in tertiary hospitals and nursing colleges in Kerala, India. The responses were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 respondents and focus group discussions with 4 different groups in December 2023.

Themes identified included preparedness gaps, underuse of secondary stakeholders, training and coordination capabilities, training needs, fear of clinical competence and safety, role confusion, elitism, and social responsibility, totaling 7 themes. Participants identified roles, preparedness, variable clinical exposure, and the necessity of planned competency development as unsatisfactory. The nurse educators were able to contribute to training, supervision, documentation, and psychosocial support, provided they are well prepared.

Nurse educators can be of great help to HDM, but are not being used to their full potential due to unclear role expectations and limited readiness. Their competencies can be enhanced and incorporated into institutional disaster plans to build surge capacity and improve coordination in hospital disaster responses.