Readiness of hospital nurses for disaster responses in Taiwan: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Because patients in disaster areas require the most critical care, mobilising hospital nurses has become a pivotal strategy. Given the importance of disaster nursing training programmes, understanding how well prepared hospital nurses are to provide disaster care is vital. OBJECTIVES: This paper analyses the perceived readiness of hospital nurses for a disaster response and the factors influencing their report for work outside the hospital environment. DESIGN: A cross-sectional research design was used. SETTINGS: This study was conducted at a military hospital in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 311 registered nurses participated in this study. METHODS: Data were collected on readiness for disaster responses using a 40-item researcher-designed, self-administered questionnaire found to have satisfactory reliability and validity. The questionnaire has four domains: personal preparation (16 items), self-protection (11 items), emergency response (6 items), and clinical management (7 items). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and generalised linear models. RESULTS: The majority of hospital nurses demonstrated poor readiness for disaster responses. Scores on the four domains were most associated with nurses' disaster-related training, experience in disaster response and emergency/intensive care experience. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that disaster-related training should be included in undergraduate programmes and continuing education courses to help hospital nurses recognise and improve their own readiness for disaster responses outside the hospital environment. Future research is needed to improve hospital nurses' disaster-response readiness in Taiwan and other countries.