State of readiness and preperation perceptions against disasters of nurses

The study was conducted to determine the readiness of nurses and perceptions of preparedness against disasters. The study was conducted as cross-sectional in the Gümüşhane state hospital, Kelkit state hospital and Şiran state hospital that connected to the Gümüşhane Public Hospitals Association(GKHB/GPHA) between november 2014-november 2015. The population of the study has included 226 nurses who work in the hospitals' clinic connected to the GKHB/GPHA. All the population of the study were taken as samples without using any sampling method. The study has been completed with 171 nurses. To collect data, the 'perosnal information form' that established by the researcher in accordance with the literature and 'Disaster Preparedness Perception Scale in Nurses' established by Özcan were used. The data was collected by face to face interviews in the relevant hospitals on weekdays between December 2014 - January 2015. In analyzing the data, number, percentage, chi-square arithmetic average, standard deviation, Student's t-test, One-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test was used. Altough they indicate that 'ready as partial' in the 'personal characteristics form' of %56.7 of the nurses, according to the disaster preparedness perception scale for nurses, it has appeared that the nurses have a high level of perception in the preparatory phase of disasters, as for the response and post-disaster phase they have moderate perception. In the disaster response phase, the nurses working in the pediatric clinics had the lowest level of perception while the nurses working in the surgery and the intensive care unit had the higher level of perception was determined. İt also found that nurses who participated in the disaster drill have higher perception level than the nurses who didn't. It is recommended to maintain high level preparedness perception of nurses against disasters by arranging adequate and regular training and exercises on disaster management. Key Words: Nursing, Disaster, Disaster Management, Perception, Preparation