Disaster Preparedness in Philippine Nurses.

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) for descriptive and inferential statistics

- cross-sectional research design- questionnaire

Nurses’ Preparedness for Disastersperceived level of disaster preparednessLearning Needs for Disaster Preparedness

•pretest questionnaire•main questionnaire

Two hundred nurses were invited to participate in the study, with 170 responses (105 hospital nurses and 65 community nurses) or an 85% response rate, during the months of April 2014 through July 2014. Data collection was based on interviews using a standardized instrument, the Disaster Preparedness Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages, and standard deviations were utilized to quantify the responses.Self-report questionnaires consisted of two parts: (a) demographic information and (b) the Disaster Preparedness Questionnaire.

Objective: examined the perceived level of disaster preparedness inPhilippine nurses.

use of convenience sampling may have weakened the generalization of the study.caution should be observed when interpreting or comparing the results with other countries.

Three fourths of the respondents (n = 136, 80%) indicated that they were not fully prepared to respond to disasters, while only 20% (n = 34) acknowledged that they felt they were adequately prepared. Respondents believed that they could function in the primary roles of educator (n = 107, 62.94%), caregiver (n = 104, 61.17%), and counselor (n = 82, 48.24%). More than half of the respondents (n = 98, 57.7%) were not aware of existing protocols of disaster management in the workplace. Courses taken in such areas as first aid (n = 79, 46.4%), field triage (n = 43, 25.29%), and basic cardiac life support (n = 57, 33.53%) were cited as important in preparing for disasters.- Hospital administrators should consider the development and formulation of disaster management protocols and provide appropriate disaster nursing education and training. Nursing curricula should incorporate basic principles of disaster management into nursing courses as a framework for addressing this critical deficit.

The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Health Ethics Committee of Samar State University. Nurses’ rights were maintained through disclosure of the nature, benefits, and lack of known risk of the study. After the informed consent form was signed, the researchers dispersed the questionnaires at the respective sites and collected them in a sealed envelope upon completion. To maintain the confidentiality and anonymity of the nurses, code numbers, instead of their names, were used in the questionnaire.

A questionnaire study with 170 Philippine nurses.The paper describe the results of a questionnaire and compare based on literature the preparation of nurses in the Philippine and the assessment of the knowledgebase of the nurse.