Assessment of preparedness for chemical incidents among nursing officers in base hospital Homagama, Sri Lanka-Dr. A.A.L.C. Adikari

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Among various disaster types, chemical incidents involve more risk and complexities given the primary and secondary contamination. Therefore, it is crucial to establish proper chemical incident management plans for hospitals, especially for nursing staff as they are one of the health categories who interact with victims first.

Objectives

To assess the preparedness for chemical incidents among nursing officers at Base Hospital Homagama.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Base Hospital, Homagama, Sri Lanka. All the nursing officers were selected (n=253).

A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the preparedness of the nursing staff. Statistical data analysis was conducted using the SPSS software.Based on the questionnaire responses, a scoring system was developed to give marks to each correct answer. Afterward, an overall score percentage was calculated. More than 50% of the score was considered as satisfactory whereas below 50% was considered as unsatisfactory. This was used to measure the level of preparedness.

Furthermore, a checklist was prepared to assess the availability of medications, equipment and personal protective equipment at the hospital.

Results

The majority (88.5%) of nursing staff at the Homagama hospital did not have prior experience with chemical incidents and only 4% of them have had related training. The majority (77.5%) showed satisfactory competence in their skills. However, only 39.1% were aware of the correct decontamination procedure while only 12.3% had proper skills in handling personal protective equipment. Based on this it was observed that only 39.7% of the staff showed satisfactory preparedness level.

Emergency medications and equipment were notavailable in enough stocks to manage a larger number of victims. Proper personal protective equipment was not available at all.

Conclusion and recommendations

This study demonstrated the assessment of preparedness among nursing staff during a chemicalincident in Homagama hospital. Although the competence in performing life-saving skills was satisfactory, the preparedness was low among the nursing officers.Furthermore, the infrastructure and equipment required for a chemical incident emergency wereinadequate. 

The outcomes suggested the requirement forconducting training programs for nursing officers and proper strategy developmentto handle mass casualties of a chemical incident. 

Keywords: chemical incident, preparedness among nurses, emergency preparedness