The Effect of Disaster Management Training Program on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Hospital Staffs in Natural Disasters

Hospitals have a very important role in responding to disasters. Since nurses are one of the largest group of the health team and play multi-roles in patient treatment, improvement of their knowledge and skills helps them to act better in disasters.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a disaster management training program on the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of nursing staffs. The present interventional study was conducted in Shahid Rahnemoon Hospital, Yazd, Iran in 2018. At first, 40 nurses were randomly selected and their level of knowledge, attitude, and practice was measured using the questionnaire of nurses’ preparedness in disasters. The questionnaire consisted of 72 items; The total attainable score was 132 in the questionnaire. Then, the disaster preparedness training program was implemented. The program was conducted in the form of a one-day workshop for eight hours. One month after the education program, the nurses' level of readiness, including their knowledge, attitude, and practice was re-evaluated using the same questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted by paired samples t-test using SPSS 22. The results of the study showed that the mean score of nurses' knowledge increased from 14.23 to 21.30, the mean scores of their attitude increased from 62.20 to 71.67, and their performance mean score increased from 7.28 to 11.88. These differences were statistically significant (p <0.001). Furthermore, the total mean score of nurses’ readiness increased from 82.28 to 104.53, which was statistically significant (p <0.001). According to the results of the study, the educational program increased the nurses' preparedness containing their knowledge, attitude, and practice in responding to disasters. Consequently, continuous education courses on crisis and disaster management are necessary. The nurses are also recommended to participate in these courses to increase their readiness.