Knowledge, attitude and practices among public facilities staff towards emergency response preparedness.

Increasing number of major industrial accidents nowadays had eventually uplifted high possibilities of hazardous scenarios even at public facilities. In the present paper, knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on emergency response preparedness among public facilities staff was examined thoroughly. The research was conducted at two public facilities in different prone areas in Malaysia. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze the obtained data thoroughly. A set of questionnaires which consist of two parts was distributed to the selected respondents. A total of 80 respondents in different education levels participated in the study. Furthermore, the feedback from the focus groups regarding familiarity, use and barriers to emergency response preparedness also studied. The results showed that knowledge, attitude, and practices are significantly associated with the staff readiness involving emergency response preparedness activities. However, the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices among staff towards emergency response and preparedness were identified significantly different between the selected public facilities. Therefore, knowledge, attitudes and practices play as main indicators in developing the readiness of staff to react towards emergency or crisis scenarios. In conclusion, the public facilities staff are comfortable and ready to some extent to deal with emergency or crisis scenarios at the early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]