Knowledge Attitude and Practice of Disaster Preparedness among Health Professionals Working in the Adult Emergency Department, at two Teaching Hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021.
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Date
2021-03
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: Disasters lead to loss of property and disrupted infrastructure, and slow societal
development worldwide. Every year, natural and man-made disasters destroy and displace lives,
and the frequency of disasters strike has increased over the past 50 years. Despite that, for most
national authorities developing culture of preparedness remained a challenge. And very little
has so far been done in Ethiopia in the area of disaster preparedness.
Objective: The main aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of
disaster preparedness among health professionals working in the emergency department, at two
institutional teaching hospitals of Addis Ababa.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among ED health professionals at
two institutional teaching hospitals of Addis Ababa. Data was collected using self-administered
questioners. SPSS version 26 was used for data analysis and Bivariate and multivariate analysis
was employed.
Result: A total of 197 health professionals included in the analysis. Majority of the participants
were staff nurses 143 (72.6%) and the rest were physicians. About 58.6 % of participants were
male and the mean age was 29.34 years. A significant proportion of the respondent (70.6%)
didn’t have disaster management training before and 48.7% of the respondent didn’t know their
hospital had disaster plan. They have overall low knowledge level (53.3%), positive attitude
(91.9%) and inadequate practice (59.4%). Educational level, previously attended disaster
training, working hospital and gender was strongly associated with knowledge of the participant
at p-value < 0.05. Year of ED work experience, working hospital and previously attended
disaster training, was strongly associated with practice of the participants at p- value of < 0.05.
Conclusion: Despite their positive attitude towards disaster and emergency preparedness, health
professional’s knowledge and practice level seems poor. Based on this finding, it is very
essential that the health professionals receive the adequate knowledge and skill necessary to
improve outcomes following a disaster.
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Keywords
Physician, nurses, disaster preparedness, Emergency department, Ethiopia