PURPOSE: Using a quantitative approach, this study aims to assess Indonesian nurses' perception of their knowledge, skills, and preparedness regarding disaster management. METHODS: This study was a descriptive comparison in design. The research samples are Indonesian nurses working in medical services and educational institutions. The variables of nurses' preparedness to cope with disaster victims were measured using the Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET), which was electronically distributed to all nurses in Indonesia. Data were analyzed using a statistical descriptive one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test with a significance level of 95%. RESULTS: In total, 1341 Indonesian nurses completed this survey. The average scores of preparedness to cope with disasters, the ability to recover from disaster, and evaluation of disaster victims were 3.13, 2.53, and 2.46, respectively. In general, nurses surveyed in this study are less prepared for disaster management, and do not understand their roles both during the phase of disaster preparedness, and when coping with a post-disaster situation. CONCLUSION Nurses' preparedness and understanding of their roles in coping with disasters are still low in Indonesia. Therefore, their capacity in preparedness, responses, recovery, and evaluation of disasters needs improvement through continuing education. The efforts needed are significant due to potential disasters in Indonesia and adequate nurses resources.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adult ; Civil Defense ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Disaster Planning ; Disaster Victims ; Education, Nursing, Continuing ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Indonesia ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nurses ; psychology ; Perception ; Professional Role ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

In public health emergency arising from an infectious disease epidemic, the local government is responsible for protecting the community residents by containing the spread of the disease. Such role requires close collaboration with the central government and health care institutions. Preparedness capabilities of the local government include biosurveillance, community resilience, countermeasures and mitigation, incident management, information management, and surge management. During the epidemic of Middle East respiratory syndrome in Korea, local governments exercised great efforts in contact management, patient identification, and patient management. Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare is promoting for the local governments to prepare the infectious disease emergency preparedness plan by providing a common framework. Community preparedness involves the roles of health care institutions in order to protect the residents' health. Hospitals and primary care clinics need to maintain sufficient levels of preparedness to secure safe environment and to provide sustainable service during the emergency situations.
Biosurveillance ; Civil Defense* ; Communicable Diseases ; Cooperative Behavior ; Coronavirus Infections ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergencies* ; Humans ; Information Management ; Korea ; Local Government* ; Primary Health Care ; Public Health*

Infectious disease control and prevention in Korea are handled based on laws such as the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety and the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. To fill the gaps in the national public health system that were identified during the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in Korea, Korea has strengthened its capacity to prepare for and respond to public health emergency. The objectives are to prevent, promptly detect, and rapidly respond to imported infectious diseases; to fully mobilize public health and medical resources; to revise governance enhancing the role of the centralized decision-making structures; and to improve health care facilities to prevent health care-associated infections.
Civil Defense* ; Communicable Diseases ; Coronavirus Infections ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disasters ; Emergencies* ; Jurisprudence ; Korea* ; Public Health*

No abstract available.
Civil Defense* ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging* ; Emergencies* ; Public Health*

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy curriculum change was made from a 4-year program to a 2+4 year program in year 2009 in Korea. The change has resulted in more educational exposures on patient-centered practice environments for about 1,400 hours in the last year of the professional pharmacy program. When the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak hit Seoul and suburban areas and propagated to other provinces in Korea, emergency response to avoid student infection in the pharmacy practice sites became an urgent issue. While other health professional programs such as medicine and nursing had activated emergency preparedness manuals, timely and clear guidelines were not disseminated to all pharmacy programs and protective measures largely relied on individual pharmacy program. METHODS: A survey was developed by the Committee on Pharmacy Practice Experience Programs in the Korean College of Clinical Pharmacy to document the status of pharmacy programs during the Korea MERS outbreak in 2015. The 10-question survey was distributed to the pharmacy practice experience coordinators to 34 out of 35 pharmacy schools in Korea by emails. RESULTS: Our findings showed that 82.4% of the program coordinators (28/34) responded to the survey, 96.4% of the programs did not have emergency preparedness manuals, administrative meetings were held in 89.3% of the pharmacy programs, the rotation schedules were modified or withheld in 53.6% of schools, and the changes were mostly observed from the programs classified as MERS outbreak regions. CONCLUSION: Further needs in establishing the emergency preparedness manual should be explored for pharmacy education stakeholders.
Appointments and Schedules ; Civil Defense ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Pharmacy ; Electronic Mail ; Emergencies ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle East* ; Nursing ; Pharmacy* ; Schools, Pharmacy ; Seoul

To avoid a future catastrophic event like the recent Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak, we must reform our health system based on an objective and thorough review of the outbreak. A little over a year after the outbreak, this paper aims to evaluate the current status of the government's effort to reform our health system across the three following areas: 1) infectious disease emergency preparedness and response; 2) an organized healthcare system for infectious diseases; and 3) hospital preparedness for healthcare-associated infections. In spite of the substantial organizational changes of the Korea Centers for Disease Control (CDC) responsible for infectious disease emergency preparedness and response, the Korea CDC has not shown significant improvement in its competence and organizational commitment in the face of recent infectious disease threats such as Zika virus and cholera. So far, the Korean government has not announced an implementation plan for establishing an organized healthcare system for infectious diseases. To reduce healthcare associated infections, the Korean government implemented major changes in the hospital infection control system, emergency medical service system, and enhanced nursing system. Because the most extensive reform occurred around reducing healthcare-associated infections in hospitals, we need to evaluate the impact of the entire reform effort in a near future. Because the effort to reform our health system remains ongoing, we also need to continue to observe the progress of reform to ensure the avoidance of a future catastrophic event like the recent MERS outbreak.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Cholera ; Civil Defense ; Communicable Diseases ; Coronavirus Infections ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Emergency Medical Services ; Health Care Reform* ; Korea ; Mental Competency ; Nursing ; Organizational Innovation ; Zika Virus

A brief emergency planning educational presentation was taught during work hours to a convenience sample of employees of various workplaces in Northern Missouri, USA. Participants were familiarized with details about how an emergency plan is prepared by management and implemented by management-employee crisis management teams - focusing on both employee and management roles. They then applied the presentation information to assess their own organization's emergency preparedness level. Participants possessed significantly (p < 0.05) higher perceptions of their organization's level of emergency preparedness than non-participants. It is recommended that an assessment of organizational preparedness level supplement emergency planning educational presentations in order to immediately apply the material covered and encourage employees to become more involved in their organization's emergency planning and response. Educational strategies that involve management-employee collaboration in activities tailored to each workplace's operations and risk level for emergencies should be implemented.
Civil Defense* ; Cooperative Behavior ; Emergencies* ; Missouri

Disasters are frequently experienced in the Philippines with detrimental impact to hospitals and its vulnerable population. Nurses, who are front liners in hospitals during disasters, must be familiar in disaster management. This study determined the extent of familiarity on disaster preparedness of nurses in hospitals, and the significant difference when grouped according to years of experience, position and area of assignment. A quantitative descriptive method was employed, wherein the EPIQ (Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire) was used. Nurses with more than one year of experience were selected using simple random sampling. T-test and F-test were employed. Findings revealed that nurses were moderately familiar on disaster preparedness and there was a significant difference in all variables. Nurses in hospitals have more to learn on disaster preparedness. The need for continuing education is recommended. Future researches may be done on unaccounted for factors from this study like gender or type of institution using objective-type questionnaire.

Healthcare system in Korea was found to be very vulnerable to public health emergency preparedness and response as demonstrated in the recent outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. We need to redefine the function of and improve the capability of local district public hospital and local health center to cope with potential threats by newly emerging infectious disease in the nearer future. While central government may be responsible for early detection of newly emerging infectious disease transmitted from outside of the country, local government and its district-level public healthcare agencies need to primarily control over spread of the disease among the local residents. Governance setting for rapid response required in public health crisis situation appears to be possible based on strong local public health infrastructure for health promotion and disease prevention at si-gun-gu district level. Proper and sustainable investment is also needed for local public hospital with high standard facilities and skilled healthcare manpower since there seems little economic incentives to maintain such facilities in private hospitals. In conclusion, it would be urgent task to improve prevention activities for infectious disease of local health centers and clinical activities of local public hospital. Especially, role and competencies of public health physicians working at the public health center need to be specified as an essential component of public health infrastructure.
Civil Defense ; Communicable Diseases ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging* ; Coronavirus ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disease Outbreaks ; Health Promotion ; Hospitals, Private ; Hospitals, Public* ; Investments ; Korea* ; Local Government ; Middle East* ; Motivation ; Public Health

Trauma is the leading cause of mortality and disability for Koreans under age 44. In Korea, 35.2% of trauma deaths are preventable. Currently, a trauma care system is just beginning to be established in Korea. Optimal trauma care systems have the potential to significantly reduce trauma-related mortality. For patients with severe injuries, getting care at a trauma center lowers the risk of mortality by 15-25%. An optimal trauma care system provides care with a well-functioning, comprehensive system from pre-hospital trauma care through the rehabilitation stages. A trauma care system should also include disaster preparedness and education and training to the public, and to paramedics and trauma-related medical personnel. An optimal trauma care system will give the right treatment to the right patients at the right place and time. The components of optimal trauma systems include trauma center designation; the existence of trauma advisory groups; trauma registry use for quality control; current field triage guidelines; trauma system involvement in emergency preparedness planning; and national funding sources.
Allied Health Personnel ; Civil Defense ; Disasters ; Financial Management ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Korea ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Trauma Centers ; Triage