The Important Role Of Well-Prepared Nurses During Disaster

Arnold Henry Glasgow a businessman and leader once said, “One of the true test of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” It has been particularly known that nurses play a significant role during disasters and given the frequency of disasters happening the need of well-prepared nurses is of crucial importance (Rokkas, Cornell, & Steenkamp, 2014). Local initiatives are in place with the intent to prepare health care workers to effectively respond to a disaster, such initiatives include disaster training, drills, and exercises; however, in spite of this initiatives, evidence shows that nurses not only are still ill-prepared to respond, but are unaware of what their roles during disaster events are (Labrague,

In face of disasters occurring more frequently and threatening people’s life around the globe, the need to have well-prepared nurses has never been greater; however, according to Loke & Fung, (2014) states that more than 80% of nurse volunteers that participated in a disaster event had no previous experience in disaster response.

The need to be prepared has led to heightened concern about the adequacy of effective disaster response plans that will allow the healthcare workforce to respond to large-scale health emergencies (Skryabina, Reedy, Amlôt, Jaye, & Riley, 2017). It was suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) that, no matter how unusual disasters happened, all nations should educate and train healthcare workers for a major disaster (Loke & Fung,

According to Rokkas, et al., (2014), disaster related training was identified as an effective way for nurses to enhance their disaster knowledge and skills. For example, Tzeng et al. (2016) found that nurses who had disaster training felt better prepared in case of disaster response. Similarly, in a study by Al Thobaity et al. (2015) assured that most of their acquired skills and knowledge about disaster preparedness were obtained through disaster training and drills. Lastly, in one study by Jacobson et al. (2010), nurses convey their preference for an instructor led, small group disaster training