Introduction: Despite the key role of Iranian nurses throughout disaster management, there is no instrument available to examine nurses' current disaster preparation levels.
Aim: The aim of this study was to develop and analyse the reliability and validity of a questionnaire on the nurses' knowledge, attitude and practice of disaster preparedness.
Materials and methods: The scale was developed based on a comprehensive literature review and applied to 112 nurses in three public educational center affiliated to Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran. Relibility was obtained using the test-retest method. Cronbach's alpha was used to verify internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the validity of the questionnaire.
Results: Explanatory factor analysis using varimax rotation revealed seven main factors associated with the nurses' knowledge, attitude and practice regarding disaster preparedness. The questionnaire overall internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha was 0.785, showing acceptable internal consistency. The intraclass correlation coefficient using Test-retest method was 0.82. Total variance was 67.57%.
Conclusion: The instrument has satisfactory reliability and validity indices and can be used to measure nurses' knowledge, attitude and practice regarding disaster preparedness.
Keywords: Disaster management; Emergency preparedness; Factor analysis; Iran; Scale development.