Journal of Disaster and Emergency Research
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Apr 2020

Performing exercises is of utmost importance for hospital preparedness. Tabletop exercises are more straightforward and less expensive comparing to operation-based exercises. Iran University of Medical Sciences, using public and private sector partnerships in the field of health, held a joint tabletop exercise. This exercise aimed to enhance the ability to respond efficiently to disasters. Findings of this study revealed that not only performing continuous training and partnership through both public and private sectors is essential for hospitals’ preparedness, but also promoting the training level can provide a ground for integration and trust among all private and public centers. Consequently, these endeavors can be beneficial in preparing for disasters and emergencies. This article aims to describe the experience of holding a joint tabletop exercise

Most studies have analyzed how natural disasters exert a severe impact on the regional level in the disaster period based on quantitative methods. This study aimed to highlight how Hurricane Florence exerts an impact on human life and societies across US states in a multitude of periods by employing both qualitative and quantitative methods.

This study developed a new app called ―Twitgis,‖ collected 1,433,032 tweets, and employed 57,842 data filtered for Hurricane Florence between 08-21-2018 and 10-01-2018.

First, this study showed that the spatial patterns of tweets are differentiated by periods. For example, the spatial patterns of tweets are more concentrated in the south region in the pre-hurricane period, the spatial patterns of tweets are heavily concentrated in the Southeast region in the hurricane period, and the spatial patterns of tweets are more located in the Northeast region in the post-hurricane period. Second, the most retweeted tweet shows that human sentiment plays an important role in disaster information more than news of the hurricane in online communication. The first ranked tweet is about two times higher than the sum of the retweet numbers between the top two and top 20. Third, this study found that people actively utilize Twitter to share a lot of emotions, opinions, information, and so on for Hurricane Florence. For instance, about one-fifth of tweets in the sentiment analysis are emotions for the hurricane event.

Governments and policymakers should monitor Twitter data to understand the effects of natural disasters on people and the human environment.

Dust phenomenon is a major environmental problem in world that threatens the middle-east countries specifically. In order to develop a need-based policy and regulate the supporting health program to reduce dust effects requires a proper understanding of the public beliefs about threats posed by this issue. The purpose of this study was to explain the threat appraisal patients with cardiovascular diseases regarding exposure to dust phenomena.

This qualitative content-analysis study was conducted from January to June 2018. The participants included 28 cardiovascular patients who referred to the healthcare centers in Ahvaz City. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with open-ended questions and inspiration from threat appraisal process constructs were used to collect data. All data were gathered, transcribed, and analyzed using MAXQDA-10 software and in-depth analysis.

Perceived threat constructs were used and 4 categories and 9 subcategories were extracted: perceived likelihood of exposure to dust (perceived likelihood of increased non-respiratory problems, perceived likelihood of increased respiratory problems), belief in seriousness and danger of exposure to dust (understanding the severity of physical complications, understanding the severity of mental and psychological complications, understanding the severity of economic complications), external reward of exposure to dust (improving personal and social relationships, improving financial problems), internal reward of exposure to dust (pleasant feeling).

This study provided a clearer and deeper understanding of the threat posed by exposure to dust among cardiovascular patients. Based on the results, the authorities can design more targeted and more effective protective plans to raise awareness among community members, especially cardiovascular patients about the negative effects of exposure to dust and the ways to reduce its exposure.