(A128) Awareness and Preparedness of Western Children's Hospitals for Disasters

Abstract

Disasters involving children are becoming more and more frequent. Thus, optimal preparedness will be a challenge for every Western pediatric disaster specialist. However, for any appropriate decision to be made, there must be a practical tool for accurately evaluating the levels of specific disaster awareness and preparedness. This tool is based on the idea that child injury prevention campaigns [n = 6] are usable as a platform for the simulation of specific pediatric disaster scenarios, and that different simulations might be able to modulate overall awareness and overall preparedness levels, as well as affect the training provided. Data are gathered from a disaster phase-related (Haddon-Matrix) set of questionnaires answered by key disaster response personnel [n = 58]. Overall awareness for a pediatric disaster scored highest for the “in the world” scenarios, with less, but with similar scores for “in the country” and “in the region” scenarios. Overall preparedness scored low for “in the world”, with higher scores for “in the country” and “in the region”. Both, overall awareness and overall preparedness scored inconsistently for “in the hospital” in the first instance, but later in the matrix, “in the hospital” had the highest scores. In general, basic knowledge about disaster plans is moderate, and knowledge about existence and activation of preparedness measures is above average. Individual position-taking and feelings of personal competency in position-taking is low, especially among junior staff. Currently, only a group of seniors are able report participation in a specific training. This platform is an upgradable tool for the awareness of and preparedness for pediatric disaster assessments, regarding phases, locations, and training, with promising trends for their modulation, especially among junior staff.