Nurses' familiarity on disaster preparedness in hospitals

ABSTRACT

@#<p style="text-align justify;">Disasters are frequently experienced in the Philippines with detrimental impact to hospitals and its vulnerable population. Nurses, who are front liners in hospitals during disasters, must be familiar in disaster management. This study determined the extent of familiarity on disaster preparedness of nurses in hospitals, and the significant difference when grouped according to years of experience, position and area of assignment. A quantitative descriptive method was employed, wherein the EPIQ (Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire) was used. Nurses with more than one year of experience were selected using simple random sampling. T-test and F-test were employed. Findings revealed that nurses were moderately familiar on disaster preparedness and there was a significant difference in all variables. Nurses in hospitals have more to learn on disaster preparedness. The need for continuing education is recommended. Future researches may be done on unaccounted for factors from this study like gender or type of institution using objective-type questionnaire.</p>