Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of health professionals working at emergency units towards disaster and emergency preparedness at Addis Ababa health bureau administered public hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2020.
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Date
2020-06
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: Disaster is a serious public health issue nowadays which can happen at any given instant
and cause loss of many lives. Hence, the emergency room is at the forefront of the response system and
serving as the gateway to the most appropriate care of victims. Health professionals who are working at
the emergency department have an upfront role in calamity responses to disaster victims. Adequate
competencies of health professionals to handle a disastrous event are important to care victims.
Objective: The objective of the study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of health
professionals working at the emergency unit towards disaster, and emergency preparedness at Addis
Ababa health bureau administered public hospitals, Addis Ababa,2020.
Method: Cross-sectional study design was employed and three public hospitals randomly selected from
six Addis Ababa health bureau administered public hospitals. A total of 225 health professionals who are
working at the emergency unit of the selected hospitals participated in the study making the response rate
of 96.2%, and data was collected using a self-administered questioner. Data were checked for
completeness, cleanness, and entered into EPI-data version 4.6.2.,and exported to SPSS version 23 for
analysis. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was employed.
Results: The majority of the respondents 118(52.4%) were nurses and followed by physicians which
were 63(18%). A significant proportion (34.7%) of the respondents did not know their hospitals had a
disaster plan. They have poor knowledge (52%), positive attitude (55.1%), and inadequate practice
(56.4%).Age category of the participant had influence level of knowledge and level of attitude at pvalue<0.05.
Conclusion and recommendation: Although the poor knowledge and inadequate practice of respondents
about disaster/emergency preparedness; health professionals had a positive attitude towards disaster and
emergency preparedness. Hospitals should build the capacity of health professionals who are working at
an emergency unit towards disaster and emergency preparedness.
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Keywords
Disaster, Emergency Preparedness, Ethiopia