Knowledge of Emergency Medical Service Staff on Crisis Management

Since emergency medical service (EMS) staff members are the first providers of health care at times of crisis, this study was done with the aim of determining the knowledge of EMS staff on crisis management and its related factors in all emergency bases located throughout Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran. This study was done as a descriptive cross-sectional one. Sampling was done via convenience sampling. The tool used for data gathering was a questionnaire prepared by a researcher that included questions regarding demographic characteristics and knowledge of EMS staff on crisis management, which evaluated their knowledge in 4 categories of educational, management related, professional, and safety related. 4 questions were asked in each category that assessed the knowledge of EMS staff on Likert scale using 5 choices of none, low, moderate, high, and very high. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the content validity method and its reliability was calculated to be 88% via Cronbach’s alpha. To analyze the data, SPSS 13 software and descriptive statistics methods were applied. Data analysis showed that 100% of the participants in this study were male and their mean age was 27.52 ± 6.47 years. Knowledge of the EMS staff on crisis management was very high in 2.2 % of the participants; high in 10.2%; moderate in 48.4%; and low in 39.2%. In evaluation of statistical correlations it was determined that educational level, attending crisis maneuvers, and crisis committee membership directly correlated with knowledge of the participants on crisis management (p The results of the present study indicate the relatively low knowledge of EMS staff members on crisis management and its related factors, which points out the need for education and holding maneuvers to improve their knowledge in order to be prepared for facing crises.