Development of a Learning Support System for Acquiring Disaster Nursing Competencies Required in the Acute Phase of Disaster

Abstract

Introduction:The purpose of this study is to develop a disaster nursing learning support system and a list of learning contents developed by our team to effectively and efficiently acquire the necessary disaster nursing competencies in the acute phase of disasters.Method:As the first step, based on the ICN Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies, we examined the teaching materials using nine competencies extracted through prior literature, interviews with disaster nursing practitioners and reviews of disaster nursing experts. Next, we extracted learning contents that are considered difficult to learn in daily work from textbooks used in disaster relief nurse training. We gained new information on disasters using interviews with experts and internet search review literature.Results:Educational materials, including links to five open access sites, a summary of basic knowledge and original videos (case reports on dispatching disaster relief nurses, lectures on evacuation center management by experts, triage using the START-method and the PAT-method, psychological first aid, handling medical records and J-SPEED+ apps), were implemented. A test as an entry point for learning, a rubric to check current learning achievement, learning confirmation tests for each competency, a forum as a place for exchanging opinions among the learning community and an automatic certificate issuance system were set up.Conclusion:Disaster nursing is an extension of daily nursing, and many matters can be learned in daily work. There are few things that general clinical nurses should learn in addition as this study showed. However, it is inferred that it is not easy to select and update the knowledge and information that nurses need from the abundance of data available in the information society.It is meaningful to have a learning support system that allows nurses at medical institutions that are expected to collaborate in the event of an emergency to learn together during the silent phase.