Emergency nurses' disaster preparedness competencies: A focused mapping review and synthesis.

Abstract

Background: Emergency nurses are at the front line of a health institution and are deemed competent to manage various situations, with disaster being one of them. Preparing for disaster is crucial as it will eliminate delays in providing care in conditions that would be abnormal in the daily running of an emergency department.

Aim: To identify emergency nurses' disaster preparedness competencies in caring for patients during a disaster.

Setting: The study was conducted in emergency departments and trauma centres that respond to disasters and mass casualty incidents.

Methods: A focused mapping review and synthesis was conducted where, articles published between 2006 and 2022 were searched utilising keywords relating to emergency nurses' disaster preparedness through the following databases: SCOPUS, Sabinet, EBSCO host, ProQuest, PubMed and Google Scholar. Data were extracted from articles that met the inclusion criteria and placed into an extraction table where themes were developed.

Results: Of the 38 articles identified, duplicates were removed and 15 remained after an abstract review and full-text download. The review yielded five themes: communication, preparation and planning, incident management system, safety and security and intervention, the most dominant disaster competencies.

Conclusion: Communication, incident management, safety and security, preparedness and planning are the most identified integral domains within other identified domains. Integrating these aspects in nurses' continuous training and curricula is recommended to emphasise and enhance disaster preparedness and management knowledge.

Contribution: This review has emphasised emergency nurses' disaster preparedness domains, enhancing disaster preparedness and management knowledge and further influencing education and training for undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students.