Factors affecting nurses’ ability to provide effective care in a disaster response: a review

Disasters cause death, trauma, and psychological distress. Comprising the largest number of healthcare workers, nurses play a crucial role in reducing the impact of a disaster. The objective of this review is to identify the factors that influence nurses’ ability during a disaster emergency response to provide adequate care. This research was conducted by doing a literature search from the Pro-Quest and Science-Direct databases using the PRISMA-ScR to screen the articles. The final results included 13 articles. An analysis was performed to identify themes in line with the purpose of the review. All factors affecting nurses’ ability to respond to a disaster situation were classified into three themes: 1) factors increasing nurses’ ability, 2) barriers to delivering effective nursing care, and 3) support needed to maintain the nurses’ ability. During an emergency situation due to a disaster, adequate knowledge and skill to save lives, treat injuries, manage stress and coordinate between teams are the basic competencies needed for optimal care. Nurses’ clinical experience or previous disaster experience and training could increase nurses’ adaptability in disaster conditions. Support from nurses’ workplace and proper implementation of disaster management policy enhance nurses’ services and prevent barrier under disaster condition. The results emphasize that future training should aim for improving nurses’ knowledge and skills, including the knowledge of nurses’ family to protect themselves and deal with disasters. Such knowledge increased family preparedness, which is an important factor to enhance nurses’ willingness to work following a disaster.

Developing Community Disaster Resilience in Lembang Fault Area, Indonesia: Lessons Learned from Japanese Experience

Having experienced large-scale disasters between 2004 and 2006, the fatalities due to large-scale disasters in 2018 were still high. In contrast, disaster risk management (DRM) and CDR in Japan have been continuously improved. Thus, there is a need to develop CDR for supporting DRM in Indonesia by learning from the Japanese experience, particularly in a disaster-prone area without large-scale disaster experience. This research was a pilot project on the development of CDR in Indonesia. The case study was a geological hazard-prone Lembang Fault area. People’s perception was collected using structured interviews, while demographic and local economic data was acquired from official statistical publications. Satellite imageries were utilized to acquire natural and built environment and land use/land cover and their changes between 2019 and 2021. Although the degrees of social capital, risk knowledge including indigenous knowledge and past disaster experience were high, government interventions on DRM and land administration are required to develop CDR in Lembang Fault area. Organized community development is expected rather than to solely involve NGOs. Moreover, strategies to develop economic resilience are needed to allow the community to bounce back from future disaster. Finally, a detail baseline data should be collected to develop DRM strategy and CDR.

The Relationships between Public Risk Perceptions of Climate Change, Environmental Sensitivity and Experience of Extreme Weather-Related Disasters: Evidence from Greece

Climate change is one of the most pressing threats facing humanity in our times. Understanding public perceptions of climate change and its risks is the key to any mitigation and adaptation initiatives. Previous works discussed the influence of experiencing climate-related disasters, as well as the role of environmental sensitivity, but also acknowledged important regional variations, gaps and uncertainties. This work focuses on examining the relationship between personal disaster experience, risk perceptions of climate change and ideology with respect to the environment using the New Ecological Paradigm. The study exploits the results of a questionnaire survey in Greece, a characteristic example of the multihazard region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Results show that both direct disaster experience and a person’s views on the causes of recent disasters in the country are connected with environmental sensitivity and climate change risk perception in a positive way. Both factors are also correlated with views on the effects of climate change. The findings are in agreement with research outcomes in other areas of the world, showing the importance of disaster experience and the views on extreme events in influencing perceptions of climate change. The work contributes to the growing literature on risk perception of climate change and the role of natural hazards, by adding a new piece in the knowledge puzzle in the climate-sensitive and relatively data-poor region of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Disaster Risk Awareness: The Turkish Migrants Living in Northern Italy

In this study, we analysed the socio-demographic characteristics and disaster risk awareness of the Turkish migrants living in northern Italy. We initiated the study with an extensive face-to-face questionnaire with 544 individual respondents. With the help of the questionnaire, we gathered information on the socio-demographic structure of the Turkish community living in the area and the immigrants’ disaster experience, their level of disaster preparedness and disaster risk awareness, and their potential behaviour during an emergency. Additionally, we conducted focus group meetings in Milan, Lecco, Como and Varese with 49 migrants living in the region. In the focus group meetings, we discussed the migrants’ awareness of disasters and potential behaviour patterns during emergencies. We collected the informative booklets and past event reports prepared by civil protection centres and municipalities and used them in focus group meetings to collect participants’ opinions. The results show that the migrant communities’ disaster risk awareness is low, but their capacity to adapt to suddenly changing conditions is higher than presumed.

THE COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY IN FACING THE POTENTIAL EARTHQUAKES IN SURABAYA: A LITERATURE REVIEW

<div><p class="Els-history-head">In all communities, there is local wisdom and values that are formed from the disaster experience and the efforts to manage the disaster in the past. There is a lot of local wisdom that develops in the community, so each region will mark the earthquake events in its way. Every disaster event by the community is marked by various unique ways so that future generations could remember and learn from the previous disasters. This diversity of local wisdom needs to be deepened through literature studies so that lessons can be obtained from other regions to inspire the implementation of community empowerment in the city of Surabaya to face the potential for earthquakes. To analyze how community empowerment can enhance the Surabaya community earthquake disaster resilience. This is a Literature Review, that collected articles using the Google Scholar and PubMed search engines. The author filtered and selected according to inclusions criteria. The results of the literature study obtained a proposed strategy design that can be used to increase participation in the context of Surabaya community empowerment. This literature could be accommodating socio-spiritual values, increasing disaster knowledge for all levels of society, and strengthening community social systems to the lowest level.</p></div>

Issues in Radiation Nursing Education in Japan Before and After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Background: The response of nurses in Japan to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident was deemed inadequate. This study examined the issues in Japanese radiation nursing education. Method: Anonymous, self-administered postal questionnaires were sent to managers and teachers of 1053 basic nursing educational institutions in Japan. Results: Among the 342 institutions that completed the questionnaire, 218 (63.7%) had incorporated Radiological Nursing Education into their curriculum while 124 (36.3%) had not. Based on the time of their incorporation, they were divided into the pre-accident incorporation group and the post-accident incorporation groups. For 89 of 111 institutions (85.6%) in the former group, the main reason for the incorporation was radiotherapy care. For 11 of 26 institutions (42.3%) in the latter group, the incorporation was their response to the nuclear disaster. Conclusion: Nursing education in Japan has been inadequate, and as such, nurses find it hard to respond to nuclear disasters. Examining the current nursing education system and building a new model based on the nuclear disaster experience are urgent issues.

Do People Become More or Less Materialistic during Disasters? The Mediating Roles of Mortality Salience and Gratitude

Studies have yielded inconclusive findings regarding the relationship between disaster experience and materialism. Whereas some have found a positive relationship, others have reported a negative relationship. To clarify the mechanisms underlying these mixed findings, we proposed and examined two mechanisms, namely mortality salience and gratitude. A total of 214 participants (Mage = 42.05 years, SD = 16.49 years) were randomly assigned into either an experimental condition to experience a disaster or a control condition. Participants in the experimental condition reported a lower level of materialism than the scores of their counterparts in the control condition. Such effects were mediated by both mortality salience and gratitude. Participants in the experimental condition reported higher levels of both mortality salience and gratitude simultaneously. Mortality salience strengthened materialism, but gratitude weakened materialism. These findings highlighted the duel-existing mechanisms underlying the relationship between disaster experience and materialism.