[Series: Physicians and disaster medical care; Third stage. Management and education for disaster medicine: disaster medical cordination system. (2). The Great East Japan earthquake]

Survey on Disaster Relief Activities to the Pharmacists Belonging to Kobe-city Pharmaceutical Organization

In 2014, there were about 160 thousands community pharmacists in Japan. Community pharmacists are health care workers who help victims in a disaster and are potential resources who can provide disaster relief. However, currently the disaster relief activities of community pharmacists are merely a resourceful and flexible demonstration of their professional abilities and not a specifically organized activity. Therefore, disaster relief education programs for community pharmacists are being explored and studies are still in the nascent stage. In this study, pharmacists of a pharmaceutical organization in Kobe City were asked to reply to a questionnaire survey so that their hopes and ideas about the disaster relief activities that they carry out can help build effective educational programs to enhance relief activities. Finally, 8 factors (cumulative contribution rate: 90.9%) were extracted by factor analysis (maximum likelihood method, the diagonal elements: squared multiple correlation, quartimin rotation) of the 25 questions. In addition, a hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward method) by the factor scores of the extracted 8 factors resulted in 7 groups. The findings revealed the groups into which the community pharmacists were divided and their hopes and ideas about disaster relief. We expect that these results could bring awareness about the disaster relief activities suitable for each community pharmacist, provide appropriate training opportunities for those who volunteer, and motivate daily studies and preparations for disaster relief activities among community pharmacists.