Ethical procedures

Participants were informed about the purpose and the design of the study, and were assured that participation was voluntary and that confidentiality would be preserved. Before the data collection took place, participants had formally accepted and agreed to participate in the study by filling consent forms. One of the authors (Mirzabeigi) is General Director of the Iranian Nurses Organization (INO). The analysis of nursing programmes in a disaster situation is important for INO to plan for a more effective nursing response in the same potential situations. Permission for taperecording the interviews was obtained from each participant and recoded tapes stored in the first author’s office using anonymous labels.

After signing a consent form and receiving an introduction, participants completed the simulated weather scenario and the postscenario questionnaire.

Approval to conduct the proposed research was initially sought from individual department heads, Clinical Service Coordinators and Nurse Managers. Ethics approval was then gained from research committees representing each of the eight different sites.

As recommended by the Italian Ethics Committee (ComitatoNazionale di Bioetica– Raccomandazione del 13/7/2001),the approval for data collection was provided by the clinicaldirector.

The ethical guidelines of the Swedish Research Council were followed in dealing with the informants at all times

Experimental procedure was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee

The Ottawa Hospital Research Ethics Board granted approval to this study

The study was approved by the Research and Ethics Committees at the University of Jordan’s Faculty of Nursing; The University Research Committee at the University of Jordan; the Research Committee in the Ministry of Health and research committees at all involved hospitals. Anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents was ensured throughout the study. Participation on the study was voluntary and based on informed consent. Respondents were advised they were not obligated to participate in the study, and they could withdraw from the study without any consequences or penalties.

The JGSDF Fukuoka Hospital Ethics Committee approved the study protocol.

Totally, 436 participants from the USA took part in the online experiment and 393 finished it completely. After giving their consent of participation and filling out demographic information, participants were asked to rate their perceptions of China and France.