Emergency Preparedness Competencies Among Nurses in Northwest Arkansas

Existing literature suggests that nurses lack basic knowledge and skills related to emergency and disaster preparedness. Nurses nationwide have reported low levels of understanding related to numerous facets of emergency and disaster knowledge and planning. The purpose of this research was to determine the self-reported level of emergency preparedness competencies of nurses in the Northwest Arkansas area and whether those competencies varied by level of nursing education. The Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ) was utilized to measure knowledge. The results suggest that nurses across the board are unprepared in the event of an emergency or disaster situation. No statistically significant differences were found by educational type, as the clear majority of participants self-reported that they lacked emergency preparedness knowledge and training. The results of this study correlate to existing research, which is troubling to say the least. Nurses are vastly under-prepared for emergency and disaster situations and lack the basic knowledge and training to respond to such events. In the event of a disaster, the impact of nurse responders would be severely lacking and could possibly cause more harm to affected communities rather than help. These results, as well as previous research, prove that there is a great need for improvement of nursing education for future and existing nurses related to emergency and disaster preparedness