Factors predicting personal disaster preparedness of school nurses

Personal disaster preparedness of school nurses may have a direct impact on schools' ability to respond to a disaster effectively as well as responding to the surrounding community. Insufficient research has examined these issues and clear information about these relationships is imperative to better understand how to successfully engage school nurses in personal disaster preparedness. Since there is limited research and understanding of predictive factors that contribute to personal disaster preparedness behaviors specifically of school nurses, this study addressed the existing gap. School nurses were surveyed about their personal beliefs related to personal disaster preparedness using stepwise multiple regression analysis.1037 school nurses from 17 states participated in this study. Findings indicate that approximately 42% (N=432) of school nurses had a personal disaster preparedness plan. Furthermore, more than 50% of school nurses lacked vital components of personal disaster preparedness such as 3-day supply of water and back-up transportation plan. In addition, personal disaster preparedness was predicted by risk perception for natural disasters and severe disease outbreak occurring in the next year, having time for personal disaster preparedness training, receiving administrative support for participation in training, stockpiling of personal disaster preparedness supplies being inexpensive, having adequate space at home to store food or water, preparing for disasters in order to avoid consequences of disasters and confidence in responding effectively during a disaster. This study found that school nurses between the ages of 31 to 40 years were less likely to be prepared than school nurses younger than 30. Lastly, school nurses who were a member of their school's district disaster planning group were more likely to be prepared than those who were not. Targeted interventions should be developed based on predictors found in this study to increase personal disaster preparedness levels among school nurses who are not prepared.