THE IMPACT OF NURSES' DISASTER PREPAREDNESS COMPETENCIES ON PUBLIC HEALTH CENTER RESILIENCE IN DISASTER-PRONE AREAS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Disaster-prone areas need resilient health centers to ensure effective health management services and emergency response during earthquakes and tsunamis. Nurses play a critical role in disaster risk reduction which is essential to improving health center resilience. Resilience includes the ability of health centers to withstand, adapt to, and recover from the effects of disasters while continuing to provide essential health services. This study examined the influence of nurses' disaster preparedness skills on health center resilience in disaster scenarios. METHODS: Using a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional study design, this study sampled 125 nurses through proportional stratified random sampling. The questionnaire was administered to assess nurses' disaster preparedness skills, including disaster understanding and policy development and planning. Data were analyzed using Chi-squared and logistic regression. RESULTS: There was an association between understanding disaster risk (p=0.013) and policy development and planning competencies (p=0.005) with community health center resilience. Multivariate analysis showed that policy development and planning had a greater impact on community health center resilience (Exp(B)=2.992, 95%CI=1.276 -7.014, p=0.012). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of strengthening these competencies and fostering collaboration with local governments, health institutions, communities, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to support comprehensive disaster preparedness efforts.