Effects of disaster nursing education on nursing students' knowledge and preparedness for disasters

This research has been prepared to determine the effects of disaster nursing education on nursing students' knowledge and preparedness for disasters which was conducted within the undergraduate programme of study of a nursing faculty, and put forward proposals in this respect. In this research, "quasi-experimental design pretest-posttest with control group" methods were used. Final year undergraduate nursing students who selected to study option module on disaster nursing and management constituted the treatment group. All of the students in the treatment group took scores with a success rate of 90% in the final examination of the module. Data analysis showed that there was significant increase in the knowledge and preparedness of the treatment group students for disasters, disaster nursing and management, which was relatively higher than those of control group students. It has shown that this module can be benefited from to equip undergraduate students to be effective in the processes of disaster preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation once they graduate. The result recommended that the module on disaster nursing and management should be included in all of the undergraduate programme of study of nursing faculties.