A survey on the needs of rescue and relief teams in Bam earthquake on deployed time

Following the Bam earthquake, relief teams and individual volunteers’ influx in the scene. We conducted this survey to determine the needs and health status of relief workers when they were in the scene.Methods & Materials: This was a concurrent nested mixed-method survey that the qualitative nested in a quantitative approach. Interviews were through an open-ended semi-structural questionnaire three weeks after Bam earthquake. Respondents were from the relief team who had been staying in Bam at least for one week at the time of interview. We surveyed 235 relief workers and majority of them (75%) were in the scene since the1st or 2nd week of earthquake. Twenty-eight of them experienced illness, and the most common complaint was respiratory track illness. One hundred eighty five of them (79%) expressed their need to a psychology consultation. The results of thematic analysis of qualitative phase of survey were about the 19 themes expressed by the subjects. The results of this study revealed that all relief workers should be trained for self- protection. Preparing the basic needs by him/her-self may maximize the performance of relief workers in disaster regions. The study method design applied was appropriate for the similar situations.