Wildfire disasters: implications for rural nurses

Determinants of Nurse Preparedness in Disaster Management: A Cross-Sectional Study Among the Community Health Nurses in Coastal Areas

Purpose

Because Indonesia has a high risk of natural disasters, nurse preparedness is necessary to reduce and prevent deaths in the aftermath of such disasters. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with nurse preparedness in disaster management among a sample of community health nurses in coastal areas.

Patients and Methods

A cross-sectional study was undertaken from May to August 2020. The sample consisted of 142 nurses who worked at six Public Health Centers in Pangandaran, West Java, Indonesia. Participants were recruited using the total sampling technique. The data were collected using the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire and analyzed using Chi-Square and binary logistic regression.

Results

Of the 142 respondents, 54.24% had a high level of preparedness. Multivariate analysis showed that nurses with higher levels of preparedness had worked between 6 and 10 years (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 12.755, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.653-61.314). Respondents who lacked disaster training were less likely to have a high level of disaster preparedness (AOR: 4.631, 95% CI: 1.604-13.367). Respondents who had never served as disaster volunteers were also less likely to have disaster preparedness (AOR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.053-0.616).

Conclusion

With nearly half of the respondents (45.77%) having a low level of disaster preparedness, this topic needs more attention from the government and healthcare workers. Several actions are needed to improve community nurses' disaster preparedness: providing them with routine disaster-related training, encouraging them to serve as volunteers in various disaster conditions, and offering them useful disaster-related information.

Arts-Based Interventions for Professionals in Caring Roles During and After Crisis: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Crisis events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can have a devastating effect on communities and the care professionals within them. Over recent years, arts-based interventions have helped in a wide range of crisis situations, being recommended to support the workforce during and after complex crisis but there has been no systematic review of the role of arts-based crisis interventions and whether there are cogent themes regarding practice elements and outcomes. We, therefore, conducted a systematic review to (i) define the arts-based change process used during and after crisis events, and (ii) explore the perceptions of intermediate and long-term mental health benefits of arts-based interventions for professionals in caring roles. Our search yielded six studies (all qualitative). All data were thematically aggregated and meta-synthesized, revealing seven practice elements (a safe place, focusing on strengths and protective factors, developing psychosocial competencies to support peers, emotional expression and processing, identifying and naming the impact of the crisis, using an integrative creative approach, and cultural and organizational sensitivity) applied across all six studies, as well as a range of intermediate and long-term benefits shared common features (adapting, growing, and recovering; using the community as a healing resource; reducing or preventing symptoms of stress or trauma reactions, psychophysiological homeostasis). The ways in which these studies were designed independently from one another and yet used the same practice elements in their crisis interventions indicates that there is comparability about how and why the arts-based practice elements are being used and to what effect. Our findings provide a sound basis and meaningful parameters for future research incorporating quantitative and qualitative approaches to firmly establish the effectiveness of art-based interventions, and how arts can support cultural sensitivity, acceptability and indicated outcomes, particularly those relating to stress and trauma during or following a crisis.

A Scoping Review of Nurses' Contributions to Health-Related, Wildfire Research

Exposure to unprecedented levels of wildfire smoke is increasing cardiopulmonary mortality and is especially catastrophic to people with preexisting respiratory conditions such as asthma. Wildfire smoke is a mixture of hazardous air pollutants and airborne particulate matter and wildfires are burning larger areas of land and lasting longer, extending the smoke season. The wildfire season is also expected to lengthen as a result of the changing climate. This scoping review examines publications related to wildfires and health in order to explore the ways in which nursing science contributes to research on the health effects of wildfires and strategies to decrease exposure to wildfires and/or wildfire smoke. Nursing's contribution to wildfire research needs to increase to meet the demands of this rapidly growing, international problem. Nurses have an opportunity to protect the public's health through interventional research focused on preventing exposure and applying what is learned to practice.