A Study of Nurse Preparedness in Managing Disater, Nineth District Community Hospitals, Ministry of Health

Abstract

The objectives of this descriptive research were to study preparedness in disaster management among professional nurses in District 9 community hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health and to compare disaster preparedness based on work experience, department assignment, size of hospital and disaster training or conferences. The sample was composed of 364 professional nurses in District 9 hospitals who were selected by using the multi-stage sampling technique. The data collection includeda questionnaire based on disaster management concepts developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), National Council of Nursing (ICN, 2009) and the findings of a study by Arunrat Siriphakdeekan (2556). Data were statistically analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way ANOVA.

The findings are as follows: The preparedness for disaster management of the professional nurses was found to be moderate (mean = 2.65, SD = 0.76). When individual aspects were considered, disaster management affecting the community health was found to earn the highest mean score (mean = 3.00), The lowest mean while coordinating communication and educating about disaster knowledge scores (mean = 2.34, SD = 0.85) Professional nurses working in District 9 community hospitals in different departments, particularly the Disaster and Emergency Department, had different preparedness for disaster management than other departments with statistical significance at .05.