Perceptions of Knowledge Regarding Disaster Management among Healthcare Workers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Worldwide disasters are a common event nowadays. A disaster is an incident that can cause massive disruption and damage. Disaster can be dramatically affected many people, either directly or indirectly. The affected people may die, injures and it also destroyed their houses, health system, and interrupted their lifeline. The study was aimed to identify the perceptions of knowledge regarding disaster management among healthcare workers in Bangladesh. Material and Methods: A total of 120 healthcare workers were selected to participate in this study using two stages of sampling technique. The study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey in the two selected medical college hospitals in Dhaka city of Bangladesh within a period of 4 months (January 2017-April 2017). The data were collected using a pre-tested self-administered semi-structured questionnaire and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences ver-20.0. Results: In the present study, the mean age of the study respondents was 34.07 ± 10.64 years. About 51.7% of the study participants were female. Two-fifths (40%) of the study participants had diploma in radiology/pharmacy followed by B.Sc. in medical technology (20.8%) and MBBS (10.8%). More than three-fifths (64.2%) had <11 years of professional experience. Conclusions: The level of good perception of knowledge of females was slightly higher than that of males. The doctors were found to have higher level of good perception of knowledge than those from other professions. The finding reported that close to nine-tenths of the study participants had good perception of knowledge regarding disaster management and the profession of the study participants was found significantly associated with the perception of knowledge regarding disaster management.