assessing the disaster readiness of nurses in hospitals

Introduction: nurses, as a large part of the healthcare team, are among the first to managepost-accident injuries. thus, their readiness to cope with disasters is essential.objective: this study aimed at assessing the disaster readiness of nurses in hospitals affiliatedto guilan university of medical sciences (gums) in rasht city, iran.materials and methods: this across-sectional study was conducted on 177 nurses inhospitals affiliated to gums who were selected using a systematic stratified randomsampling technique. the data collection tool was readiness estimate and deploy abilityindex (readi), i.e., back-translated to persian, and its acceptable validly and reliabilitywas reported. the obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, includingfrequency, mean, and standard deviation.results: the total mean±sd score of nurses’ disaster readiness was 42±0.60. regardingthe dimensions of readi, their mean±sd scores of disaster readiness in the area of clinicalcompetency, operational competency, survival skills, stress coping, leadership and administrativesupport, mental attitude, and group integration and identificationwere3.44±0.65, 4.13±0.87,3.62±0.87, 3.27±0.91, 4±0.88, 2.66±0.85, and 3.82±0.85, respectively. the majority ofthem were moderately ready in all dimensions of disaster readiness, except for the area of operational competency where they were at favorable status.conclusion: the nurses’ disaster readiness was at a moderate level. nurses with theirtechnical skills and practical knowledge could provide the highest level of disaster careappropriate to adverse conditions to improve the affected people’s health. therefore, improving the nurses’ preparedness level in this field can lead to saving the injured people and reduce the mortality rate.