Hostname: page-component-669899f699-vbsjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-01T12:35:19.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nursing Students’ Competency to Attend Disaster Situations: A Study in Western Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2021

Fatemeh Kaviani ,
Fatemeh Aliakbari ,
Hojjat Sheikhbardsiri  and
Paul Arbon
Fatemeh Kaviani
Affiliation:
Student Research Committee, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran
Fatemeh Aliakbari*
Affiliation:
Community-Oriented Nursing Midwifery Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran
Hojjat Sheikhbardsiri
Affiliation:
Health in Disasters and Emergencies Research Center, Institute for Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Paul Arbon
Affiliation:
Torrens Resilience Institute, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
*
Corresponding author: Fatemeh Aliakbari, Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

The disaster preparedness of nurses is important as nurses are members of a health care team that needs to work systematically and collaboratively in all conditions. Although education and training naturally underpin effective practice, disaster nursing education is rarely provided to nurses in Iran. Because disaster situations, by definition, overwhelm health services, it is likely that nursing students will be required to join their colleagues in the response. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the competency of nursing students to attend disaster situations.

Methods:

This descriptive, analytical study was conducted in western Iran in 2020. A total of 70 nursing students in the fourth (final) year of their undergraduate nursing education entered the study by a census sampling method. Data collection was undertaken using a validated disaster competency assessment questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY) with descriptive and analytic tests.

Results:

The mean age of participants was 21.4 ± 2.14 and 57.1% of them were women; 45 participants (64.3%) had received no disaster-related training, and 88.6% had no history of participating in disaster exercises. The total score for nursing students’ competence was 125.58 ± 14.19. There was a significant relationship between the mean score of nursing competence in response to disasters and student history of participating in an exercise and training course (P < 0.001).

Conclusion:

Students’ competence in disaster situations is poor. Awareness of the competence condition of nurses is the first step to improve their preparedness as the most key members of the disaster health team. Conducting disaster-related training may be appropriate. The results of this study can provide evidence for the development of educational policies in disaster nursing education.

Keywords

competencydisaster situationnursingstudents
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , October 2022 , pp. 2044 - 2048
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Guha-Sapir, D, Scales, SE. Challenges in public health and epidemiology research in humanitarian settings: experiences from the field. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Natural Disasters 2020. Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Published 2020; EM-DAT file dated February 2, 2020. Accessed June 27, 2020. https://cred.be/sites/default/files/adsr_2017.pdf Google Scholar
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED. Universities Catholique de Louvain. Published 2020. Accessed March 7, 2021. https://www.emdat.be/search/node/asia?page=1 Google Scholar
2020 Natural Catastrophes. Insurance Information Institute. Published 2020. Accessed February 2, 2021. https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-global-catastrophes Google Scholar
Bakhtiari, A. Country Report: The Islamic Republic of Iran on Disaster Risk Management. Iranian National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO) and Visiting Researcher at ADRC. Published February 2014. Accessed February 14, 2021. http://www.adrc.asia/countryreport/IRN/2013/IRN_CR2013B.pdf Google Scholar
Disaster. UNDRR—United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Published 2020. Accessed March 2, 2021. https://www.undrr.org/terminology/disaster.Google Scholar
Abbasabadi Arab, M, Khankeh, HR, Mosadeghrad, AM, Farrokhi, M. Developing a hospital disaster risk management evaluation model. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2019;12:287–296. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S215444 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework. World Health Organization. Published 2019. Accessed March 8, 2021. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516181. Google Scholar
Alim, S, Kawabata, M, Nakazawa, M. Evaluation of disaster preparedness training and disaster drill for nursing students. Nurse Educ Today. 2015;35(1):25-31.Google ScholarPubMed
Karami, A, Farokhzadian, J, Foroughameri, G. Nurses’ professional competency and organizational commitment: is it important for human resource management? PLoS One. 2017;12(11):e0187863.Google ScholarPubMed
Bahrami, M, Aliakbari, F, Aein, F. Iranian nurses’ perception of essential competences in disaster response: a qualitative study. J Educ Health Promot. 2014;3:81.Google ScholarPubMed
Veenema, TG, Burkle, FM Jr, Dallas, CE. The nursing profession: a critical component of the growing need for a nuclear global health workforce. Confl Health. 2019;13:9. doi: 10.1186/s13031-019-0197-x Google ScholarPubMed
Loke, A, Fung, O. Nurses’ competencies in disaster nursing: implications for curriculum development and public health. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014;11(3):3289-3303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inkaew, W, Chompunud, S. Effects of an interactive teaching method on perceived disaster nursing competencies of undergraduate nursing students. Health Emerg Disaster Nurs. 2018;5(1):25-31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Council of Nurses (ICN). Nurses and disaster preparedness. International Council of Nurses; 2016.Google Scholar
Siemon, M, Hackwith, J, Monson, K. Development of a disaster nursing competencies assessment instrument for baccalaureate nursing education. J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(4):229-233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nilsson, J, Johansson, E, Carlsson, M, et al. Disaster nursing: self-reported competence of nursing students and registered nurses, with focus on their readiness to manage violence, serious events and disasters. Nurse Educ Pract. 2016;1(17):102-108.Google Scholar
Hung, MSY, Lam, SKK, Chow, MCM, Ng, WWM, Pau, OK. The Effectiveness of Disaster Education for Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Knowledge, Willingness, and Perceived Ability: An Evaluation Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2021; 18:10545. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910545 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latif, M, Abbasi, M, Momenian, S. The effect of educating confronting accidents and disasters on the improvement of nurses’ professional competence in response to the crisis. Health Emerg Disaster Q. 2019;4(3):147-156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheikhbardsiri, H, Khademipour, G, Nekoei-Moghadam, M, Aminizadeh, M. Motivation of the nurses in pre-hospital emergency and educational hospitals emergency in the southeast of Iran. Int J Health Plann Manage. 2018;33(1):255-264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Öztekin, SD, Larson, EE, Yüksel, S, AltunUğraş G. Undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions about disaster preparedness and response in Istanbul, Turkey, and Miyazaki, Japan: a cross-sectional study. Jpn J Nurs Sci. 2015;12(2):145-153.Google Scholar
Aghaei, MH, Ebadi, A, Aliakbari, F, Vafadar, Z. The effectiveness of disaster management education based on inter-professional approach on military nurses’ ability to confront with disaster. J Mil Med. 2020;22(1):54-63.Google Scholar
Aliakbari, F. The Explaining Concept of Nursing Competence in Disaster, Designing and Determining Psychometric Properties of Disaster Nursing Competence Questionnaire and Application in Iran: Mixed Methods Study [PhD dissertation]. Isfahan, Iran: Isfahan University of Medical Sciences; 2013.Google Scholar
Yan, YE, Turale, S, Stone, T, Petrini, M. Disaster nursing skills, knowledge and attitudes required in earthquake relief: implications for nursing education. Int Nurs Rev. 2015;62(3):351-359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, SK, Ahn, EK. Disaster experience, perception and core competencies on disaster nursing of nursing students. J Digit Converg. 2013;11(6):257-267.Google Scholar
Duong, K. Disaster education and training of emergency nurses in South Australia. Australas Emerg Nurs J. 2009;12(3):86-89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aliakbari, F, Ghaedamini, M, Deris, F, Masoudi, R. Relationship between nurses’ decision-making style and their disaster response competencies. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. Published online September 23, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2020.225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, CK, Davis, JM, Sanders, JL, et al. Exploring nursing students’ level of preparedness for disaster response. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2011;32(6):380-383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ozpulat, F, Kabasakal, E. Knowledge levels of nursing students on disaster nursing and their state of disaster preparedness. Int J Med Res Health Sci. 2018;7(8):165-174.Google Scholar
AlKhalaileh, MA, Bond, E, Alasad, JA. Jordanian nurses’ perceptions of their preparedness for disaster management. Int Emerg Nurs. 2012;20(1):14-23.Google Scholar
Nejadshafiee, M. Hospital nurses’ disaster competencies. Trauma Mon. 2020;25(2):89-95.Google Scholar
Yin, Ch-H, Luo, Y, Liu, L, et al. A disaster response and management competency mapping of community nurses in China. Iran J Public Health. 2013;42(9):941-949.Google Scholar
Fung, WM, Lai, KY, Loke, AY. Nurses’ perception of disaster: implications for disaster nursing curriculum. J Clin Nurs. 2009;18(22):3165-3171.Google ScholarPubMed