UNAIR NEWS – Building resilience or minimizing losses after natural disasters is a priority for governments around the world as the disasters may happen any time without predictions. Efforts in dealing with disasters must be a shared responsibility of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the community.
Indonesia in recent years has changed its disaster management strategy, from emphasizing emergency response and preparedness to disaster management readiness. One of them is the readiness in providing health services, especially nurses.
In this regard, Faculty of Nursing (FKp) Universitas Airlangga lecturer, Ferry Efendi, S.Kep., Ns., M.Sc., PhD explained that human resources for health services are important elements in Indonesia, especially professional nurses. Nurses, he said, play an important role in disaster preparedness such as educating people to reduce disaster vulnerability and work during disasters.
“So, when a disaster strikes, nurses need to have adequate skills related to disaster preparedness and disaster management. Therefore, we conduct a study to explain nurses’ perceptions about their knowledge, skills and readiness in dealing with disasters that may occur in Indonesia, “he explained.
Furthermore, his team’s study was a cross-sectional survey to nurses working throughout Indonesia. Potential participants were recruited from social media and online groups related to Indonesian nurses for four months. The results showed that nurses in Indonesia were not fully prepared to handle real disaster situations because most had not yet performed their duties under these extreme conditions.
“There is no disaster planning program that has been approved by medical service centers at the primary and hospital levels, although most nurses receive training on disaster management,” he said.
In the aspect of preparedness response, continued Ferry, nurses in Indonesia did not fully understand their role in the phase of disaster preparedness, organizational coordination, and they lack of confidence in their ability to deal with patients who suffered physical and emotional trauma. He said that it was caused by conflicts of interest in the workplace, the limited frequency of disaster response and preparedness training provided by hospitals and educational institutions.
“Also, the methods and teaching resources of disaster management are not sufficiently related to the actual disaster situation,” he said.
In the end, he emphasized that efforts were needed to strengthen disaster response and preparedness which involved the participation of many program sectors in a systematic, planned and experienced manner. These efforts, he continued, provide experience and insight on disaster management and can strengthen nurses’ confidence in dealing with disasters and provide support in disaster situations.
Author: Nuri Hermawan
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
Details of this research can be seen at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S100812751830124X
Martono, M., Satino, S., Nursalam, N., Efendi, F., & Bushy, A. (2019). Indonesian nurses’ perception of disaster management preparedness. Chinese journal of traumatology, 22(1), 41-46.
