Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Performance about Disaster Management: A Case of Iran

Iran is a disaster-prone country in which many natural and man-made disasters happen every year. Because the health sector is vital due to its nature of treatment and rehabilitation of the injured after the disasters, all health care providers, especially hospital nurses, should be prepared to provide the services they need.

The present study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and performance of nurses about disaster management in teaching hospitals affiliated to Iran, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2019.

This cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study was conducted on a sample of 230 nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Iran, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, who were selected using the stratified sampling proportional to size and simple random sampling methods. The data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire containing 20 questions in three dimensions of knowledge, attitude, and performance. Then, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 through independent samples t-test, ANOVA and Tukey tests at the significance level of 5%.

The results showed that the highest and lowest mean scores were related to the attitude (2.38±0.19) and knowledge (1.70±0.50) of the studied nurses, respectively. However, all three dimensions were at a moderate level. The results showed significant relationships between the mean score of performance and the gender, marital status, age, and work experience of the studied nurses. In addition, statistically significant relationships were found between the mean score of knowledge and their age and work experience (p<0.05).

According to the findings, the following suggestions can be made to increase the knowledge and performance of the studied nurses for being prepared in critical situations: reducing the duration and increasing the quality of training classes and workshops on disaster preparedness; providing some incentives for nurses, especially female, married, older, and more experienced ones to attend these classes; and improving the methods of training materials related to disaster management.