Nurses Awareness Regarding Disasters' Preparedness at Suez Canal University Hospital

Disasters are destructive events that disrupt the normal functioning of a community, have occurred since the beginning of civilization. Disasters are an ongoing part of life and affect society both locally and globally. Today’s nurses are faced with the challenges of responding to natural, manmade, and technological disasters. Aim of Study: is to determine the level of nurses' awareness about disasters' preparedness at Suez Canal University Hospital. Subjects and Methods: This study carried out on 102 of staff nurses and nurse managers in critical areas in the hospital. A questionnaire sheet composed of three parts was used to collect the study data. The first part was developed to collect data related to personal characteristics. The second part aimed to collect nurses' knowledge about classifications of disasters and the possible disasters that could occur outside or inside the hospital, it includes 17 questions. Third part was developed to assess the nurses' awareness by hospital disasters preparedness on external or internal level. Results: Study results revealed that about one fifth of nurses had satisfactory knowledge related to classifications of disasters, while only 20.6% of nurses were aware about external disaster preparedness components, and nurses' awareness about hospital internal disaster preparedness recorded very low percentage (4.9). Recommendations: In light of study results it was recommended that: design disaster plan for Suez CanalUniversityHospital, upgrade the nurses' knowledge, and equip them by main skills to face the disastrous events whether external or internal in addition to involve their job description with disaster preparedness role.