Abstract
Disasters cause great harm to the existing infrastructure and threaten the future of sustainable development. The occurrence of disasters and related causalities are one of the realities of man’s life. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and self-expressed competency of the health personnel regarding disaster and its preparedness in selected hospitals, Mangaluru. Objectives of the study are to assess the knowledge regarding disaster and its preparedness among health personnel, to determine the self-expressed competency of health personnel on disaster and its preparedness and to correlate knowledge with self-expressed competency of health personnel on disaster and its preparedness. Descriptive research design was used. Study sample consists of 200 health personnel working in hospitals in Mangaluru, who were available at the time of data collection and who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The data was collected using self-administered structured knowledge questionnaire and five point self-expressed competency rating scale. Result: Majority 42 (79.24%) of the doctors had good level of knowledge whereas majority 80 (66.67%) of nurses and 13(48.15%) of paramedical staffs had average knowledge regarding disaster and its preparedness Overall knowledge score was high among doctors with mean percentage of 80.55% with mean and SD of 32.22 ± 2.177. Next highest was among nurses with mean percentage of 67.29% with mean and SD of 26.55 ± 5.272. Least was among paramedical staffs with mean percentage of 66.38% with mean and SD of 28.275 ± 4.516. Regarding level of self-expressed competency among subjects, 47 (88.67%) doctors showed high level of competency, among nurses 55 (45.83%) of them showed high level of competency, among paramedical 7 (25.92%) of them showed high level of competency regarding disaster and its preparedness. There was positive correlation between level of knowledge and self-expressed competency of health personnel regarding disaster and it
Highlights
Disasters are not confined to a particular part of the world; they can occur anywhere and at any time
The results revealed the following findings: Table 1: Frequency and percentage distribution of demographic variables as per age, gender, professional qualification and place of health personnel
In this study, highest 120 (60%) were nurses, 53 (26.5%) were doctors and least 27 (13.5%) were paramedical staffs which is comparable with a descriptive, cross sectional study, to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of emergency personnel at two tertiary hospitals in Lagos with regard to emergency management and preparedness showed that majority, that is, 108 (52.7%) of the participants were nurses
Summary
Disasters are not confined to a particular part of the world; they can occur anywhere and at any time. Disasters cause great harm to the existing infrastructure and threaten the future of sustainable development.1The occurrences of disasters and related causalities are one of the realities of man’s life. We see the terrible toll that natural disasters inflict on vulnerable communities around the world. Over the recent decades there has been an alarming increase in the occurrence of natural disasters and the magnitude of their social, economic and communities have turned back the development clock of the areas by decades.[3] With a world’s climate seemingly going through a significant change, the rising of sea levels, natural and manmade disaster becoming more severe and are affecting more people, the world’s media brings us more dramatic picture to tell of us every day.[4]
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