Faisal Alasmari¹*, Abdulaziz Albuhayri¹, Jean Bail², Steven Parrillo² and Maher Alsakkak¹ and Mostafa Kofi¹

¹Family and Community Medicine Dept. Prince Sultan Military Medical City, PSMMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA

*Corresponding Author: Faisal Alasmari, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.

Received: November 18, 2021; Published: December 23, 2021

Abstract

This paper offers a project to assess nurses' disaster readiness in the Prince Sultan Military Medical City emergency department. The study aims to determine the level of awareness of the concept of the EOP and preparedness among emergency department nurses for a large-scale disaster. With the hospital implementing an emergency operation plan, it is unclear whether emergency department nurses are conversant with it. An extensive literature review discussing incident command systems, regulations and standards, disasters in Saudi Arabia, and preparedness has been conducted in this paper. Data was collected using survey questionnaires developed by the Qualtrics platform and distributed to a sample of nurses in the department. The project outcomes will help outline areas that need improvement. Findings show that ED nurses have a lack of knowledge about disaster preparation. They need educational, practical, and awareness programs to cultivate their confront disasters’ competencies. Some recommendations have been presented to the Major Disaster Response Unit (MDRU) to perform and provide additional educational and training approaches for the ED nurses about the EOP and disaster response.

Keywords: Nursing; Saudi Arabia; Disaster

References

1. Madrigano J., et al. “Beyond disaster preparedness: building a resilience-oriented workforce for the future”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12 (2017): 1563.
2. Alzahrani F and Kyratsis Y. “Emergency nurse disaster preparedness during mass gatherings: A cross-sectional survey of emergency nurses' perceptions in hospitals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia”. BMJ Open4 (2017).
3. Al-Bassam A M., et al. “Natural hazards in Saudi Arabia. In Extreme natural events, disaster risks and societal implications” (2014): 243-251.
4. World Health Organization definitions: emergencies.
5. Preston J., et al. “Community response in disasters: An ecological learning framework”. International Journal of Lifelong Education 6 (2015): 727-753.
6. Drabek T E. “The human side of disaster”. CRC Press (2016).
7. Saudi Gazette. “Single-day deaths drop to record low as KSA sees steady fall in COVID-19 cases” (2021).
8. Shalhoub A A B., et al. “Evaluation of disaster preparedness for mass casualty incidents in private hospitals in Central Saudi Arabia”. Saudi Medical Journal3 (2017): 302.
9. Nofal A., et al. “Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of emergency department staff towards disaster and emergency preparedness at tertiary health care hospital in central Saudi Arabia”. Saudi Medical Journal 11 (2018): 1123.
10. VanDevanter N., et al. “Challenges and resources for nurses participating in a Hurricane Sandy hospital evacuation”. Journal of Nursing Scholarship6 (2017): 635-643.
11. Azmani S., et al. “Challenges of communication system during emergency disaster response in Malaysia: A review”. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences4S (2017): 890-904.
12. Roud E. “Collective improvisation in emergency response”. Safety Science 135 (2021): 105104.
13. AlShowair A., et al. “Review of hospital disaster preparedness in Arabian Gulf countries”. ACTA Medical Sciences 9 (2019): 86-94.
14. Sultan M A S., et al. “Nurses’ readiness for emergencies and public health challenges—The case of Saudi Arabia”. Sustainability 19 (2020): 7874.
15. Repoussis PP., et al. “Optimizing emergency preparedness and resource utilization in mass-casualty incidents”. European Journal of Operational Research2 (2016): 531-544.
16. Yip S H F. “A mixed-integer linear programming model for disaster housing supply chain design and optimization (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)” (2019).
17. Farcas A., et al. “Use of incident command system for disaster preparedness: A model for an emergency department COVID-19 response”. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (2020): 1-6.
18. Rahmati-Najarkolaei F., et al. “Assessment of a military hospital’s disaster preparedness using a health incident command system”. Trauma Monthly2 (2017).
19. California Hospital association. “Hospital incident command system (HICS)” (2017).
20. Al Thobaity A., et al. “Exploring the necessary disaster plan components in Saudi Arabian hospitals”. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 41 (2019): 101316.
21. Khankeh H., et al. “Developing accreditation standards for disaster risk management: An approach for hospital preparedness improvement–editorial”. Journal of Military Medicine6 (2018): 574-576.
22. Essential national requirements for patient safety (2019).
23. Al Thobaity A., et al. “Exploring the necessary disaster plan components in Saudi Arabian hospitals”. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 41 (2019): 101316.
24. Bajow N A and Alkhalil S M. “Evaluation and analysis of hospital disaster preparedness in Jeddah”. Health 19 (2014): 2668.
25. Joint Commission International (n.d.). 6^th edition in-depth: Structural integrity of patient care environments in the event of a disaster (2019).
26. Nassaji H. “Qualitative and descriptive research: Data type versus data analysis”. Language Teaching Research2 (2015): 129-132.
27. Barbosa F. “Emergency health care system and its role in national disasters”. Journal of Humanities Insights 1 (2018): 14-20.
28. Mississippi State Department of Health. Emergency Planning and Response Training Catalog (2017).
29. Naser W N and Saleem H B. “Emergency and disaster management training; knowledge and attitude of yemeni health professionals- a cross-sectional study”. BMC Emergency Medicine1 (2018).
30. Adini B., et al. “Learning lessons in emergency management: The 4^th International Conference on healthcare system preparedness and response to emergencies and disasters”. Disaster and Military Medicine1 (2016): 1-6.
31. Rizqillah A F and Suna J. “Indonesian emergency nurses’ preparedness to respond to disaster: A descriptive survey”. Australasian Emergency Care2 (2018): 64-68.
32. Venkatesan C., et al. “Rapid Operationalization of a Large-Scale Covid-19 Vaccination Program in an Integrated Community Health System”. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery1 (2021).
33. Al-Zahrani M A., et al. “Impact of COVID-19 on Urology Practice in Saudi Arabia”. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy 14 (2021): 1379.

Citation

Citation: Faisal Alasmari., et al. “Awareness of Emergency Nursing Staff about Emergency Operations Plan in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia". Acta Scientific Microbiology 5.1 (2022): 270-284.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Faisal Alasmari., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.