Nurses' General Disaster Preparedness Status and Affecting Factors

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the general disaster preparedness of nurses and to determine the factors affecting the effects. Methods: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between May and December 2022. It was conducted in a training and research hospital in İzmir province. The study was conducted with 211 nurses working in all units of the hospital. 'Nurse Introduction Form' and 'General Disaster Preparedness Scale' was used. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, groups one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U and t-test in independent groups were used. Results: The mean age of the nurses who participated in the study was 36.26+-8.52 years and 93.4% were female. 46.4% of the nurses reported that they knew the hospital disaster plan but had not read it, and 87.2% reported that they had no role in the hospital disaster plan. 43.1% of the nurses reported that they received hospital disaster plan training. 29.9% of the nurses stated that they had ever been involved in disasters and/or extraordinary situations in their professional life. The mean total score of the nurses on the general disaster preparedness scale was 90.63+-7.23. Nurses' general disaster preparedness and marital status (t=-1.919; p<0.05), educational level (KW=14.683; p<0.05), being assigned in the hospital disaster plan (U=3105.00; p<0.05), knowing the hospital disaster plan duty and position (U=2538. 50; p<0.05), knowing the duration of hospital disaster plan (U=1927.50; p<0.05), disaster training (t=-0.445; p<0.05) and previous disaster experience (t=-0.626; p<0.05). Conclusion: The general disaster preparedness of the nurses was found to be close to medium level. When the sub-dimension scores of the scale were analyzed, it was found that nurses received the highest score from self-efficacy and the lowest score from perceived seriousness. A statistically significant relationship was found between the general disaster preparedness of nurses and factors such as marital status, education level, being in charge of hospital disaster plan, knowing the hospital disaster plan task/position, knowing the duration of hospital disaster plan, previous disaster experience and education.