Registered nurses' experience as disaster preparedness coordinators during a major incident: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aims: To explore registered nurses' experiences as disaster preparedness coordinators of hospital incident command groups' during a major incident.

Design: A qualitative descriptive design using semi-structured interview.

Methods: This was a qualitative study based on one focus group discussion and six individual follow-up interviews. Participants were registered nurses in their capacity as disaster preparedness coordinators with experience from Major Incident simulations and a real-life Major Incident. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. The COREQ checklist was used for reporting the findings.

Results: The analysis of data generated the main category: Expectations, previous experience and uncertainty affect hospital incident command group response during a Major Incident and three categories, (I) Gaining situational awareness (containing two subcategories), (II) Transitioning to management (containing three subcategories) and (III) Actions taken during uncertainty (containing two subcategories).

Keywords: clinical decision-making; disaster nursing; disaster planning; major incident; management.