Emergency Nurses’ Familiarity, Attitudes and Practices for Disaster Preparedness in Jordan

Abstract

Disaster preparedness is a key success factor for any effective disaster management practices. The increasing frequency of disaster worldwide necessitates that emergency nurses, be appropriately prepared. To assess the current familiarity, attitudes and practices of nurses in emergency departments for disaster preparedness in Jordan. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted at public and private hospitals. A convenience sample of 240 nurses working in emergency departments participated in the study. A self-developed questionnaire was utilized to capture nurses’ familiarity, attitudes and practices toward disaster preparedness. The familiarity of emergency nurses with disaster preparedness had the highest mean 2.9 (0.84), followed by attitude 2.2 (0.38), then practices 1.58 (0.47).Among the Sociodemographic factors studied, (gender, age, experience, qualification, disaster training) were significantly associated with nurses ‘familiarity of disaster preparedness. A statistically significant association was found between nurses' attitudes toward disaster preparedness with Gender, age, experience, and disaster training. A significant association was only observed between disaster training and the practice of nurses toward disaster preparedness, however, disaster training remained the strongest indicator of nurses’ familiarity, attitudes and practice for disaster preparedness. Findings of this study provide evidence that could be used by nurse educators and administrators to best prepare nurses in general and emergency nurses in particular for disaster preparedness in Jordan.