Assessing the Awareness Regarding Disaster Management Plan among an Interprofessional Team in a University Hospital

Disaster can be defined as a sudden extraordinary event that brings great damage, loss, destruction and injury to people and their environment. Interprofessional collaboration can have a positive impact on the quality of patient care. All employees need to be oriented with the disaster management plan of their organization. The aim of the study is to assess the awareness of the health team members about disaster management plan in the Suez Canal University Hospital. The study conducted at Suez Canal University Hospital using a cross-sectional design. It included medical staff and non-medical staff members (doctors, nurses, laboratory, radiology technicians, security officers, registration officers, and housekeepers n=400). The data collection tool is a questionnaire that included 22 questions categorized into seven sections. According to the study, the awareness of various categories of the study candidates about the emergency response plan of the hospital was generally low. There was a low awareness of the meaning of disaster among all categories. There is a high awareness among doctors, nurses, laboratory, radiology technicians regarding infection control section, while the awareness was low among security officers, registration officers, and housekeepers. There is a lack of awareness of hospital staff members regarding emergency response plan and the meaning of disaster at the Suez Canal University Hospital. The study recommends that hospital administrations should give more attention to the problem of disasters, disaster plan. More emphasis should be paid for training programs regarding disaster management for all responsible team in the hospital.