Knowledge Levels of Nursing Students on Disaster Nursing and Their State of Disaster Preparedness

Background: Turkey is a country that very frequently experiences disasters due to its geological structure, and earthquakes are Turkey's most frequent type of natural disaster. To best fulfill their roles and responsibilities during a disaster, nurses are expected to enhance their knowledge and experience. Aim: This was a descriptive study and aimed to determine nursing students' knowledge levels on disaster nursing and their state of disaster preparedness. Method: This study included fourth year nursing students in two universities located in the Ankara and Konya provinces of Turkey. It was conducted in the second education terms between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. For data analysis, this study used frequency values, a chi-square test to assess students' views on disaster nursing courses by their universities, and an independent sample t-test. Results: 51.6% students were nursing students in University A located in Konya, with 48.4% studying at University B in Ankara. The mean age of students was 2.41 +/- 0.95 years, and 85.5% were female. Most of students studying in University A (67.8%) reported that they had received education about disasters, and this rose to 83.2% in University B students. This showed that students' disaster education status differed between universities. Only 6.8% of University A students reported that they had received disaster nursing education, while 68.6% of students studying at University B had received education about disaster nursing. The data obtained from this study showed that the status of receiving disaster nursing education varied according to the university attended (p<0.05), that there were statistically significant relationships between disaster nursing knowledge scores and students' universities, genders, whether they had received education about disasters and disaster nursing. Conclusion: This study found significant differences between students in both universities in terms of their having received education about disasters, disaster nursing, and knowledge scores on disaster nursing.