Nursing Students’ Disaster Awareness, Disaster Preparedness, and Disaster Nursing Competency

Nursing Students’ Disaster Awareness, Disaster Preparedness, and Disaster Nursing Competency

Purpose: This study aims to provide basic data to improve disaster nursing competency by identifying nursing students’ disaster awareness, disaster preparedness, and disaster nursing competency and confirming the relationship among them. Research design, data, and methodology: The subjects of this study were 310 students attending the Department of Nursing at E University in Gyeonggi-do, and the data was collected from April 13 to May 24, 2023. Results: Disaster awareness averaged 72.91±7.46 points, disaster preparedness averaged 2.82±2.81 points, and disaster nursing competency averaged 44.11±10.76 points. Disaster preparedness and disaster nursing competency were significantly higher in subjects with disaster nursing education experience than in those without experience. Disaster awareness showed a significant positive correlation with disaster preparedness (r=.20, p <.001), and also with disaster nursing competency (r=.37, p <.001). Disaster preparedness showed a significant positive correlation with disaster nursing competency (r=.49, p <.001). It was found that the disaster nursing competency was high when the disaster awareness (B=0.472, p<.001), and the disaster preparedness (B=1.561, p<.001) was high. Conclusions: The results show it is possible to improve students' disaster nursing competency by strengthening education on disaster awareness and disaster preparedness. Thus, specific efforts and future research are needed to develop disaster nursing education.