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Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates

Health professionals are expected to be knowledgeable on disaster medicine and prepared to deal with medicine disasters. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice disaster medicine among health care workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and determine...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shanableh, Sawsan, Alomar, Muaed Jamal, Palaian, Subish, Al-Ahmad, Mohammad Majed, Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36795695
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278056
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author Shanableh, Sawsan
Alomar, Muaed Jamal
Palaian, Subish
Al-Ahmad, Mohammad Majed
Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed
author_facet Shanableh, Sawsan
Alomar, Muaed Jamal
Palaian, Subish
Al-Ahmad, Mohammad Majed
Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed
author_sort Shanableh, Sawsan
collection PubMed
description Health professionals are expected to be knowledgeable on disaster medicine and prepared to deal with medicine disasters. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice disaster medicine among health care workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and determine the influence of sociodemographic factors on the practice of disaster medicine. A cross-sectional survey conducted among various healthcare professionals in different healthcare facilities in the UAE. An electronic questionnaire was used and randomly distributed throughout the country. Data were collected from March to July 2021. The questionnaire consisted of 53 questions distributed among four sections: demographic information, knowledge, attitude and readiness to practice. The questionnaire distribution involved a 5-item of demographic information, a 21-item of knowledge, a 16-item of attitude and an 11-item of practice. A total of 307 (participation rate ~80.0%, n = 383) health professionals practicing in the UAE responded. Of these, 191 (62.2%) were pharmacists, 52 (15.9%) were physicians, 17 (5.5%) were dentists, 32 (10.4%) were nurses, and 15 (4.9%) were others. The mean experience was 10.9 years [SD ±7.6] (median 10, IQR 4–15). The median (IQR) overall knowledge level was 12 (8–16) and the maximum knowledge level was 21. The overall knowledge level differed significantly between the age groups of the participants (p = 0.002). The median (IQR) of overall attitude was (57, 50–64) for pharmacists, (55, 48–64) for physicians, (64, 44–68) for dentists, (64, 58–67) for nurses, and (60, 48–69) for others. The total attitude score differed significantly between the different professional groups (p = 0.034), gender (p = 0.008) and workplace (p = 0.011). In terms of readiness to practice, respondents’ scores were high and not significantly related to age (p = 0.14), gender (p = 0.064), professional groups (p = 0.0.762), and workplace (p = 0.149). This study showed that health professionals in the UAE have moderate levels of knowledge, positive attitudes, and high readiness to engage in disaster management. Gender and place of work can be considered as influencing factors. Professional training courses and educational curriculums related to disaster medicine can be beneficial to further reduce the knowledge-attitude gap.
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spelling pubmed-99344162023-02-17 Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates Shanableh, Sawsan Alomar, Muaed Jamal Palaian, Subish Al-Ahmad, Mohammad Majed Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed PLoS One Research Article Health professionals are expected to be knowledgeable on disaster medicine and prepared to deal with medicine disasters. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice disaster medicine among health care workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and determine the influence of sociodemographic factors on the practice of disaster medicine. A cross-sectional survey conducted among various healthcare professionals in different healthcare facilities in the UAE. An electronic questionnaire was used and randomly distributed throughout the country. Data were collected from March to July 2021. The questionnaire consisted of 53 questions distributed among four sections: demographic information, knowledge, attitude and readiness to practice. The questionnaire distribution involved a 5-item of demographic information, a 21-item of knowledge, a 16-item of attitude and an 11-item of practice. A total of 307 (participation rate ~80.0%, n = 383) health professionals practicing in the UAE responded. Of these, 191 (62.2%) were pharmacists, 52 (15.9%) were physicians, 17 (5.5%) were dentists, 32 (10.4%) were nurses, and 15 (4.9%) were others. The mean experience was 10.9 years [SD ±7.6] (median 10, IQR 4–15). The median (IQR) overall knowledge level was 12 (8–16) and the maximum knowledge level was 21. The overall knowledge level differed significantly between the age groups of the participants (p = 0.002). The median (IQR) of overall attitude was (57, 50–64) for pharmacists, (55, 48–64) for physicians, (64, 44–68) for dentists, (64, 58–67) for nurses, and (60, 48–69) for others. The total attitude score differed significantly between the different professional groups (p = 0.034), gender (p = 0.008) and workplace (p = 0.011). In terms of readiness to practice, respondents’ scores were high and not significantly related to age (p = 0.14), gender (p = 0.064), professional groups (p = 0.0.762), and workplace (p = 0.149). This study showed that health professionals in the UAE have moderate levels of knowledge, positive attitudes, and high readiness to engage in disaster management. Gender and place of work can be considered as influencing factors. Professional training courses and educational curriculums related to disaster medicine can be beneficial to further reduce the knowledge-attitude gap. Public Library of Science 2023-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9934416/ /pubmed/36795695 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278056 Text en © 2023 Shanableh et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shanableh, Sawsan
Alomar, Muaed Jamal
Palaian, Subish
Al-Ahmad, Mohammad Majed
Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed
Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title_full Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title_fullStr Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title_short Knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: A nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in United Arab Emirates
title_sort knowledge, attitude, and readiness towards disaster management: a nationwide survey among healthcare practitioners in united arab emirates
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36795695
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278056
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