Self-reported preparedness of New Zealand acute care providers to mass emergencies before the Canterbury Earthquakes: a national survey.

Introduction: Disasters occur more frequently. Acute care providers are the first to respond to mass emergencies from the healthcare sector. The preparedness of acute care providers in New Zealand to respond to mass emergencies has not been previously studied.

Objective: To assess the self-reported training and experience of New Zealand acute care providers to respond to mass emergencies and the factors associated with strong preparedness.

Methods: A cross-sectional national survey of 1500 acute care providers in New Zealand carried out between 2009 and 2010. The survey assessed experience, training and self-reported preparedness. It also determined the factors associated with strong perceived preparedness.

Results: The response rate to this survey was 60.7%. Nurses had a higher response rate than doctors or paramedics. Only 29.2% of acute care providers reported responding to a previous mass emergency event. There were 53.5% of acute care providers who reported having formal training in how to deal with mass emergencies, whereas 58.1% of participants reported that they were aware of their role during a healthcare mass emergency response. The factors associated with self-reported strong preparedness to deal with mass emergencies included: being a paramedic, previous training, participation in a drill, willingness to report to work during an infection or man-made emergency, ability to triage and general awareness of the role during a mass emergency.

Conclusion: Almost half of New Zealand acute healthcare providers have no training in dealing with mass emergency events. Training and general awareness of the role during a mass emergency response were the main factors associated with strong self-reported preparedness of acute care providers. The apparent efficacy of training allied to lack of availability means that it should be a national priority.