Disaster Preparedness of Rural Healthcare Providers

The purpose of this project was to identify the current status of education/training of rural health care providers and identify gaps in training/education to better prepare rural providers to care for victims of disasters. A survey was conducted and distributed to 21 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants employed at rural clinic/critical access hospital. The survey consisted of quantitative and fill in the blank questions. The survey was distributed through the electronic survey engine ?Qualtrics.? Participation in the survey was voluntary and responses were anonymous. The survey addressed/identified: basic demographic information, knowledge of disaster/emergency preparedness and care of victims as a first receiver, experience and education related to disasters/emergencies, perceptions of emergencies/disaster types most likely to impact their facility, future education/training preferences, and barriers to participation in disaster/emergency education/training. The survey also assessed the providers? comfort level with suggested disaster/emergency core competencies put forth from professional emergency/trauma organizations. The response rate to the survey was 57.14%. Of those that responded 41.67% reported experience in caring for victims of disaster. Participation in previous disaster education/training was reported by 83.3% and these same respondents were familiar with their role according to the facility?s Emergency Operations Manual (EOM). The providers perceived that natural disasters were most likely to affect their community (83.33%) in relation to events from the facility?s Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA). Respondents that reported having not participated in disaster education/training indicated a lack of time and new employment as barriers. For future training 66.66% of those that responded would prefer hands on training and were willing to spend one hour per year on disaster training/education. In regard to their ability to care for disaster/emergency victims, participating providers considered themselves novice (25%), advanced beginner (25%), competent (16.67%), proficient (25%) and expert (8.33%). Overall, results indicate that most respondents had experience and are currently participating in education/training. However, the majority still consider themselves novice or advanced beginner in their ability to care for disaster/emergency victims. Most felt that there was little likelihood for most disaster events to occur in their community other than natural disasters