Saudi EMS Students' Perception of and Attitudes toward Their Preparedness for Disaster Management

Background: Disasters led not only to the loss of life and destruction of public infrastructures, but also resulted in consequent healthcare delivery concerns. Disaster preparedness is considered one of the key steps in emergency management. EMS students had very scanty knowledge, attitude and practices about disaster preparedness and mitigation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess Saudi EMS student' perceptions regarding their preparedness for disaster management. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used to examine the perception of Saudi EMS student' about their preparedness for disaster management, convenience sampling technique was adopted recruit study sample. Arabic version of Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET) was used to collect data in the current study. Ethical approval was obtained from the IRB in Prince Sultan Collage For Emergency Medical Services. Analysis of data will be carried out by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. Results: Respondents reported weakly to moderate knowledge, the means ranged from (M = 2.50, SD1.57 to M=3.40 SD1.30). The mean related to skills ranged from (M = 2.40, SD1.34 to M = 3.87, SD1.44). Respondents thought that integration of disaster courses in EMS curricula, accompanied with practical training, would help in preparing EMS students for disaster management. Conclusion: EMS students expressed a need for integration of disaster knowledge in undergraduate curriculum. Furthermore, the participants of this study reported that they were unprepared to respond to disastrous events which make them unconfident in their abilities to response adequately in disastrous events.