Assessment of disaster preparedness and related impact factors among emergency nurses in tertiary hospitals: descriptive cross-sectional study from Henan Province of China

Jiange Zhang; Lei Yang; Xue Cao; Ying Ren; Xu Han; Shuting Zang; Fangfang Cai; Lijun Xu; Lijie Qin; Peirong Zhang; Yanwei Cheng

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1093959

Assessment of disaster preparedness and related impact factors among emergency nurses in tertiary hospitals: descriptive cross-sectional study from Henan Province of China

Front Public Health. 2023 May 4:11:1093959. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1093959. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiange Zhang^#^{1

2}, Lei Yang^#¹, Xue Cao^#³, Ying Ren^{1

2}, Xu Han^{1

2}, Shuting Zang^{1

2}, Fangfang Cai⁴, Lijun Xu¹, Lijie Qin¹, Peirong Zhang¹, Yanwei Cheng¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, People's Hospital of Henan University, Zhengzhou, China.
² Henan Provincial Key Medicine Laboratory of Nursing, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.
³ Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, People's Hospital of Henan University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Henan University School of Nursing and Health, Zhengzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the current state of disaster preparedness and to determine associated factors among emergency nurses from tertiary hospitals in Henan Province of China.

Methods: This multicenter descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with emergency nurses from 48 tertiary hospitals in Henan Province of China between September 7, 2022-September 27, 2022. Data were collected through a self-designeds online questionnaire using the mainland China version of the Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET-MC). Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to evaluate disaster preparedness and to determine factors affecting disaster preparedness, respectively.

Results: A total of 265 emergency nurses in this study displayed a moderate level of disaster preparedness with a mean item score of 4.24 out 6.0 on the DPET-MC questionnaire. Among the five dimensions of the DPET-MC, the mean item score for pre-disaster awareness was highest (5.17 ± 0.77), while that for disaster management (3.68 ± 1.36) was the lowest. Female gender (B = -9.638, p = 0.046) and married status (B = -8.618, p = 0.038) were negatively correlated with the levels of disaster preparedness. Five factors positively correlated with the levels of disaster preparedness included having attended in the theoretical knowledge training of disaster nursing since work (B = 8.937, p = 0.043), having experienced the disaster response (B = 8.280, p = 0.036), having participated in the disaster rescue simulation exercise (B = 8.929, p = 0.039), having participated in the disaster relief training (B = 11.515, p = 0.025), as well as having participated in the training of disaster nursing specialist nurse (B = 16.101, p = 0.002). The explanatory power of these factors was 26.5%.

Conclusion: Emergency nurses in Henan Province of China need more education in all areas of disaster preparedness, especially disaster management, which needs to be incorporated into nursing education, including formal and ongoing education. Besides, blended learning approach with simulation-based training and disaster nursing specialist nurse training should be considered as novel ways to improve disaster preparedness for emergency nurses in mainland China.

Keywords: descriptive cross-sectional study; disaster nursing specialist nurse training; disaster preparedness; emergency nurses; tertiary hospitals.

Publication types

Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Civil Defense*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Disasters*
Female
Humans
Nurses*
Tertiary Care Centers

Grants and funding

The present work was supported by the 23456 Talent Project of Henan Provincial People's Hospital to LY, Research Startup fund of Henan Provincial People's Hospital to YC and XC, and Henan Province Medical Science and Technology Co-construction Project to YC (LHGJ20220028).