Research Paper: Preparedness of Nurses for Crises and Disasters in Imam Khomeini and Social Security Hospitals of Saqqez

Disasters outside of human control can severely affect public health. In addition, the lack of appropriate planning and preparedness to face disasters can exacerbate the problems emerging from disasters. The current study aimed to determine the preparedness of nurses in facing disasters.
This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 257 nurses of the Imam Khomeini and Tamin Ejtemaei hospitals of Saqqez in 2017 using the census method. Demographic forms and a questionnaire consisting of knowledge, attitude, and performance were used to collect data.
In this study, there were 86(33.5%) men and 171(66.5%) women with the mean age of 33.9±7.3 years. The mean score of knowledge (36±11.9), attitude (65.3±11.02), performance (51.9±27.5), and preparedness (153.2±31.3) was higher than that of the average values. The result showed that knowledge was correlated with age (P=0.010). Also, there was a correlation of attitude with marriage (P=0.017) and performance with gender (P=0.0103) and management experience (P=0.002).
The result of the study showed that the score preparedness of the nurses was average, which was undesirable. It is recommended that the nurses should be provided continuous training to deal with disasters by creating an appropriate environment and motivating them to improve preparedness conditions.