Effectiveness of Training the Hospital Incident Command System Chart at Chemical Disasters through Lecturing and Simulation Methods on Nurses’ Knowledge at Selected Military Hospitals of Aja

Considering the important role of nurses in dealing with chemical disasters, it is necessary to improve the level of knowledge of nurses in confronting these incidents. Today, Hospital Incidence Command System (HICS) is a common program for the management of facilities and human resources in disasters.

This study aimed to compare the effect of the HICS chart at chemical disasters through two methods of lecture and simulation on the knowledge of nurses in Tehran Military Hospital, Tehran, Iran.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on nurses at Aja Hospital (n=60). The nurses were divided into two groups of simulation and lecture by a simple random sampling method. The training of the HICS chart was performed on the two groups in one day. Before and two weeks after the intervention, the nurses’ knowledge was assessed by a researcher-made questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS 20 software using descriptive and inferential statistics, an independent t-test, and a paired t-test (P<0.05).

There was no significant difference between the mean knowledge score of the two groups before the intervention (P<0.05). The mean knowledge scores after the intervention were significantly higher in the simulation group than in the lecture group (P<0.001). The mean scores of knowledge had a statistically significant difference before and after the intervention in both groups (P<0.001).

Considering the seriousness of the risk of chemical disasters and nurses’ little information in this field, the training and application of the HICS chart in improving the knowledge of nurses were more effective through using the simulation training method than employing the lecture training method in dealing with chemical accidents.