Identifying weaknesses in national health emergency response skills and techniques with emergency responders: A cross-sectional study from China

Highlights • After decades of investment in public health emergency response system in terms of infrastructure, equipment, inter-organizational communication and other areas, China has claimed that a sound public health emergency response system was established. Despite this, lack of qualified front-line staff that equipped with sufficient knowledge and emergency response skills has crippled the efficient action of emergency response. Although this problem is grave, there is paucity of studies in China exploring this issue. • This study identified the weakest skill areas perceived by participants among key skills highly demanded during public health emergency response. • Totally fourteen key emergency response skills and techniques were highlighted by responders. The five top weakest skill deficiency areas to be addressed were as follows: field epidemiological investigation skills, personal protective skills, nuclear and radioactive emergency handling skills, psychological intervention skills and risk assessment skills. • Major obstacles hindering the efficient promotion and mastery of those key skills among front-line emergency responders were as follows: insufficient funding of technical application, lack of operability, disqualified training and drills, delays in skill updating. • Determinants associated with the self-rated overall skill proficiency of public health emergency responders were explored: the multivariate logistic regression revealed personal protective skills as the most important factor contributing to self-rated overall skill proficiency of public health emergency responders (OR = 2.171), then field epidemiological investigation skills (OR = 1.510). Followed by emergency preparedness plan skills, coping with emergency drills, crisis communication skills, besides, field sampling skills and the professional title.
Background To identify the weakest skill areas perceived by participants among key skills highly demanded during emergencies and to explore factors influencing the self-rated overall skill proficiency of public health emergency responders. Methods The participants were selected by a multistage, stratified cluster sampling method in Heilongjiang CDC to complete questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of health emergency response skills and techniques. A final sample of 1,740 staff members was obtained and analyzed. Results The 5 top skill deficiency areas perceived by participants were field epidemiologic investigation, personal protection, effective nuclear and radioactive response as well as psychological interventio (for these two areas gain the equal score), and risk assessment. The logistic regression revealed personal protective skills as the most important factor contributing to the self-rated overall skill proficiency of public health emergency responders, followed by field epidemiologic investigation skills. Conclusions More attention should be given to emergency response skill training and education programs. Major obstacles hindering the promotion of key skills and techniques among front-line emergency responders should be addressed urgently. Continuous efforts should be made to remove the financial, technical, and resource obstacles to improve public health emergency response capacity.