Nurses’ Perception of Readiness for Mass Casualty Events Involving Children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/jzbf1820Keywords:
Children, Code Orange, Hospital Preparedness, Mass Casualty, Perception of Preparedness, Registered Nurses, TrainingAbstract
Background: During mass casualty events, hospitals must be ready to receive and provide patient care for both children and adults. However, many studies have shown that due to a lack of funding, resources, training, and time, nurses consistently report feeling unprepared to care for children during mass casualty events.
Methods: To improve understanding of how prepared pediatric-trained nurses are to respond to mass casualty events involving children, Registered Nurses (RN) completed a survey with questions that included four domains: professional demographics and employment history, experience working as an RN in a mass casualty event, knowledge questions related to current organizational mass casualty procedures, and perceptions on professional preparedness.
Results: Seventy-four percent of participants agree that a mass casualty event primarily involving children, requiring what is known as a Code Orange activation, will occur at some point during their career. Nurse participants do not currently receive regular training related to a Code Orange activation, and are overall dissatisfied with the little training provided. Nurses believe emergency preparedness is important to their professional development.
Discussion: Increasing nurses’ preparedness to respond to a mass casualty event involving children is important and may require additional training across nurses’ career trajectory.
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