Problems experienced by nurses working in the region affected by Kahramanmaraş earthquakes in Turkey and their recommendations for risk reduction: A descriptive and cross-sectional study

Abstract

Nurses have crucial roles and responsibilities for ensuring the sustainability of health services during disaster periods. One of these roles and responsibilities is to guide future planning efforts in light of their experiences and problems. This study was conducted with 130 nurses as a descriptive and cross-sectional study to identify the experiences and recommendations of nurses working in the region affected by earthquakes centered around the Kahramanmaraş province of Turkey. The snowball sampling method, which is a purposive sampling method, was used in the study, and the data were collected using an online survey form. In this study, it was found that nurses worked as emergency nurses or first aid and triage nurses voluntarily or on temporary assignment in hospitals across the region affected by earthquakes and would like to continue to work in the region. It was discerned that the participants experienced primarily psychological problems at the individual level, and in the context of nursing services, they mostly had managerial and organizational problems during the period when they worked in the region. In light of these problems, the participants recommended that the competencies of nurses be enhanced through training programs and by organizing events to have a more effective disaster preparation, and the managerial skills and psychological coping skills of nurses be improved. In the direction of these results, the experiences and recommendations of nurses should be used for enhancing their disaster preparedness and designing more effective plans for the future, and in particular, their psychological coping skills should be improved, and the management and organization skills of those taking roles in disaster management should be enhanced.