Abstract

Purpose: A tornado disaster drill was developed and implemented at a new northeast Texas baccalaureate-nursing program in 2014. The nursing department in 2015 generated another tornado disaster drill at a larger on-campus location and with more victims from both the nursing department and other healthcare related fields at the university. The purpose of this portion of the project was to obtain student feedback and reflections on the disaster drill they participated in as responders and have their input for possible adjustments to future disaster drills.

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice state that graduates should be able to use clinical judgment and make decisions during disaster situations. All nurses need training in emergency preparedness and this should occur during their initial nursing education program declares the International Council of Nurses. The American Nurses Association supports nurses being competent to respond to disasters and provide care.

Methodology: A ten-question survey was developed early in 2015. A 5-point Likert scale with categories from strongly agree to strongly disagree was used for seven of the questions. The other three questions were open-ended and allowed the respondents to provide any information they wanted for their answer. The survey was sent to 44 students via an online free survey platform to the students approximately three months after the disaster drill.

Findings: Fourteen members of the class of 2014 and 21 members of the class of 2015 responded to the survey. From the class of 2014, 79% agreed the disaster drill was realistic while 67% of the class of 2015 felt this way. More than three fourths of each class felt they applied the nursing process during the drill. Thirty-two of the 35 respondents felt they would use the knowledge and skills from the disaster drill in the practice as a registered nurse.

Implications for Nursing: Evaluating student feedback about the disaster drill experience provides faculty information to retain or make modifications in the drill scenario to provide the best experience for future students.

Author Details

Bonnie Smithers, MSN, RN, FNP and Monica Tenhunen, DNP, RN, GNP-BC

Sigma Membership

Iota Nu at-Large

Lead Author Affiliation

Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas, USA

Type

Poster

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Cohort

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Disaster Drills, Nursing Students, Nursing Process, Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Nursing Education

Conference Name

Sigma Beta Chi Chapter Annual Conference

Conference Host

Beta Chi Chapter,Northwestern State University

Conference Location

Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Conference Year

2016

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Self-submission

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Undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students and disaster drills

Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Purpose: A tornado disaster drill was developed and implemented at a new northeast Texas baccalaureate-nursing program in 2014. The nursing department in 2015 generated another tornado disaster drill at a larger on-campus location and with more victims from both the nursing department and other healthcare related fields at the university. The purpose of this portion of the project was to obtain student feedback and reflections on the disaster drill they participated in as responders and have their input for possible adjustments to future disaster drills.

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice state that graduates should be able to use clinical judgment and make decisions during disaster situations. All nurses need training in emergency preparedness and this should occur during their initial nursing education program declares the International Council of Nurses. The American Nurses Association supports nurses being competent to respond to disasters and provide care.

Methodology: A ten-question survey was developed early in 2015. A 5-point Likert scale with categories from strongly agree to strongly disagree was used for seven of the questions. The other three questions were open-ended and allowed the respondents to provide any information they wanted for their answer. The survey was sent to 44 students via an online free survey platform to the students approximately three months after the disaster drill.

Findings: Fourteen members of the class of 2014 and 21 members of the class of 2015 responded to the survey. From the class of 2014, 79% agreed the disaster drill was realistic while 67% of the class of 2015 felt this way. More than three fourths of each class felt they applied the nursing process during the drill. Thirty-two of the 35 respondents felt they would use the knowledge and skills from the disaster drill in the practice as a registered nurse.

Implications for Nursing: Evaluating student feedback about the disaster drill experience provides faculty information to retain or make modifications in the drill scenario to provide the best experience for future students.