Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Summer 2023

Climate change is a slow and long-term change that is different from other types of crises, and its effects will eventually cause the paralysis of society and the world economy. Considering the last climate change summit in Glasgow and the previous summit, according to the authors of this text, preventing and dealing with climate change in the present era will not be possible except with the cooperation of all countries. In this regard, considering the discussion of social inequalities of climate change, we attend a series of ideas and suggestions that are further discussed.

One of the necessary features to confront the COVID-19 pandemic is performance and resilience which causes nursing managers to have a wider perspective based on preventing preparation and reaction to the disaster. This study aims to evaluate the nursing perspectives on nursing management during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

One hundred eighty-nine Iranian nurses working in a Corona Center hospital took part in this cross-sectional study. This hospital is the main center for curing COVID-19 patients in Guilan province, Iran. The data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of demographic features and disaster-managing surveys based on seven engineering approaches in hospitals by enumeration sampling from June to October 2021.

Findings showed the Mean±SD score of the nursing managers’ functions was 141.77±26.12 based on resilience approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 73.2% of the participants believed that the managers’ performance during the pandemic was at a medium level. The Mean±SD scores of resilience principles in the nursing managers’ performance with detachment consisted of the commitment of the senior management at 29.34±5.90, the culture of fallibility at 18.34±3.84, the culture of learning at 11.81±2.77, awareness 6.62±1.61, preparation 9.56±4.03, flexibility 48.42±10.31, and transparency 17.35±4.03. There was a great statistical difference between the nursing managers’ performance and the employment type.

The nursing managers’ performance level was at a medium level based on the resilience principles during the COVID-19 pandemic. The desirable performance of the nursing managers caused a reduction in burnout, increased job satisfaction, and ultimately reduced the nurses’ taking leaves. Therefore, designing and performing effective interventions to improve the nursing managers’ performance in a disaster is necessary. The trauma caused by COVID-19 has increased the nursing managers’ responsibility to create safe environments and perform the nurses’ protection policy. These activities and strategies can be performed at different levels.

Hospital preparedness for accidents and disasters is vital in maintaining and promoting community health. However, the country’s hospitals are not well prepared for disasters. The hospital safety index (HSI) was 42% in Iranian hospitals in 2014. This study aims to investigate the HSI in Iranian hospitals in 2020 and to provide solutions to improve it.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed for the country’s hospitals. The results recorded in the Farsi version of the hospital safety index (FHSI) software in 2020 were used. Hospital teams used the FHSI checklist (151 options) in three areas of structural, non-structural, and functional safety to assess the hospital and register in the FHSI system. The registered results of the hospitals were collected based on the medical universities of the country. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

A total of 604 hospitals registered safety index information in the system. The mean score of the HSI of the country’s hospitals was 60.84. A total of 130 hospitals (21.5%) had low safety levels, 418 hospitals (69%) had moderate safety levels, and 56 hospitals (9.2%) had high safety levels against disasters. The mean scores were in structural safety (57.20), non-structural (65.24), and functional safety (63.36). Hamedan (76.81) and Kerman (75.61) Provinces had the highest score, and Yazd (53.74), and Lorestan (57.31) Provinces had the lowest score in the country.

The HSI against disasters in 2020 compared to 2014 has reached 6 out of 10 and we have about a 41.5% increase in safety (from 43 to 60.84). However, the HSI is moderate. Strengthening the safety and resilience of hospitals, improving the safety of medical equipment, improving the knowledge and skills of managers in the scientific development of preparedness, response and recovery programs, funding and support of crisis programs, attention to security programs, pollution, and evacuation are among the solutions of development and enhancement of hospital preparedness against disasters.

Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are subject to moral hazards during work, leading them to find moral distress (MD). Our literature review showed a gap in knowledge related to MD in EMS personnel. Therefore, this study investigated MD and its influential factors in pre-hospital emergency technicians.

This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in Iran in 2017. A convenience sampling method was used to select 265 technicians working in EMS from several cities in Iran. The MD thermometer was used to measure the MD in the technicians. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 20.

All the participants were male with mean age and work experience of 31.64±6.5 and 7.76±5.1 years, respectively. The mean score of MD was 4.6±1.8 (out of 10). Nearly 76% of the participants were with moderate levels of MD. A significant relationship was observed between the willingness of technicians to change or leave their job and the mean scores of MD in the participants.

EMS technicians experienced moderate levels of MD. Therefore, healthcare planners and policymakers need to pay more attention to this issue due to the complications of MD in healthcare personnel.

Personnel working in emergency departments are exposed to a lot of burnout due to their nature and occupational factors; therefore, it is very important to pay attention to the factors that cause and aggravate burnout. In the meantime, the existence of organizational justice is an important principle in employee efficiency that can also affect the quality of employee services. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between organizational justice and burnout in emergency department personnel of Tabriz hospitals in 2019.

The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional correlational study that was performed on 140 pre-hospital emergency personnel in Tabriz, Iran in 2021. The sampling method was census. Data were collected using a three-part questionnaire including participants’ personal demographic information form, Niehoff and Moorman organizational justice questionnaire, and Maslach burnout inventory (MBI). For data analysis, SPSS software, version 22 was used through descriptive statistics and analytical statistics. The significance level was considered at 0.05.

The results showed that the level of organizational justice and job burnout of participants was in the moderate range. Also, the results of the correlation statistical test showed that there was a significant reverse relationship between organizational justice and job burnout of pre-hospital emergency personnel (P<0.05).

The findings of this study showed that organizational justice is not very desirable from the perspective of pre-hospital emergency personnel and their sense of burnout can be largely related to this situation. Therefore, based on the findings of the present study, it is suggested that managers and officials of pre-hospital medical centers and emergencies by adopting new administrative policies and creating a favorable organizational climate based on human dignity can take positive steps to improve organizational justice and reduce job burnout.

Workshop training is one of the most effective learning methods. This study aims to compare the effect of virtual and face-to-face workshop training on students’ learning and satisfaction.

A three-group intervention study with before and after measurements was conducted with the participation of 106 nursing students. A convenient method of assigning replacement blocks was used. The groups included three groups, a virtual workshop, a face-to-face workshop, and a control. The data collection tool included a demographic form, and researcher-made awareness, performance, and satisfaction questionnaire. The content validity of the tool was confirmed by experts in the fields of nursing, health in disasters and emergencies, and medical education. The reliability of the tool using test re-test and Cronbach’s α was 0.858. Awareness and performance were evaluated before and after the study. Satisfaction was checked at the end of the study. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with SPSS software, version 23.

Most of the students were female (55.66%), with a Mean±SD of age 22.75±2.05 for all groups, single (93.4%), seventh semester (62.30%), without experience of participating in the training workshop (67.9%), and reading the book related to triage with mass casualty incident (MCI) (81.13%). Before the intervention, the groups had no significant difference in terms of awareness (P=0.169) and performance (P=0.296), while after the intervention, the difference was significant (P˂0.001). After the intervention, the most awareness and performance were related to the face-to-face workshop. A significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of satisfaction (P˂0.001). In the face-to-face workshop, 43.42% were very satisfied and 36.36% were satisfied, while very satisfied students did not exist in the virtual workshop and only 22.44% of students were satisfied. Satisfaction in the control group was moderate and poor.

Since the face-to-face workshop increased students’ awareness, performance, and satisfaction, it is suggested to use face-to-face educational workshops to improve the scientific level of nursing students before graduation.

It is widely accepted that musculoskeletal injuries, especially in the lumbar region, are among the most common complaints of people working in emergency medical services (EMS). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) and its associated factors in the field staff of prehospital EMS in northern Iran.

This cross-sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted in 2019 on 156 men selected by convenience sampling from the population of field staff of prehospital emergency medical centers in Gilan, Iran. The participants completed a questionnaire of demographic information and the numerical rating scale. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software, version 24 using unvaried logistic regression at 5%, and multiple logistic regression at 10% significance level.

Of all the participants, 69.9% (n=109) had LBP. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that workers with a higher number of calls per shift (90% CI, 1.01%-1.32%, OR=1.15, P=0.088), low income (P=0.016), history of underlying diseases (90% CI, 1.40%-54.12%, OR=8.71, P=0.051), level of education with bachelor’s degree or higher (P=0.077) were more likely to have LBP. 

The prevalence of LBP in the field staff of prehospital EMS was remarkably high. The most important factors that predispose these workers to LBP were the number of calls per shift, income level, history of underlying diseases, and bachelor’s degree or higher level of education. The findings can be used to develop guidelines for reducing the prevalence of LBP among the field staff of prehospital EMS.