Disaster Nursing Competencies among Nurses Working in Tertiary Level Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal

Authors

  • Hricha Neupane National Academy of Medical Sciences, Bir Hospital Nursing Campus
  • Parikshit Chapagain Bhaktapur Hospital

Keywords:

competencies, disaster, nursing, barriers, nurses

Abstract

Background: Nepal is one of the most multi hazard prone countries in the world. The first responders and the largest health workforce of any country are nurses. Therefore, it is essential to determine the competencies of nurses, as one of the baseline for disaster preparedness. This study explores nurses’ current roles and responsibilities in disaster management, core competencies that need to be implemented and barriers to developing core competencies.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was conducted among 234 nurses working in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital which was chosen randomly. Stratified proportionate sampling was then done to calculate samples from each wards which was then followed by random sampling of the participants. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency and SD).

Results: The mean score for nurses’ current roles and responsibility in disaster management was very low for all items of the questionnaire. Nurses identified their role in participation in identifying education and training needs of the nurses as the maximum. However, nurses’ opinion to develop the core competencies is high for all items. All the barriers studied were identified as barriers for developing disaster competencies. The highest barrier was found the lack of training in workplace.

Conclusions: It is noteworthy that nurses’ opinion of their roles and responsibility in disaster management is very low despite of their high opinion towards developing core competencies. It may be due to the barriers perceived at workplace.

Key words: competencies, disaster, nursing, barriers

Published

2021-12-28

How to Cite

1.
Neupane H, Chapagain P. Disaster Nursing Competencies among Nurses Working in Tertiary Level Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Journal of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences [Internet]. 2021Dec.28 [cited 2024Mar.29];4(3). Available from: https://jkahs.org.np/jkahs/index.php/jkahs/article/view/540