Emergency Preparedness Curriculum
in US Nursing Schools

Betsy Weiner, PhD, RN, BC, FAAN
Meg Irwin, ND, RN
Trish Trangenstein, PhD, RN, BC
Jeff Gordon, PhD

Rationale and Significance

The attacks on 9/11 illuminated the inadequacies of our American healthcare system in responding to mass casualty events. The immediate and long term responses clarified both the strengths and the weaknesses of the nursing response from a variety of agencies. Followed closely by the anthrax scares, healthcare professionals were suddenly placed into the category of “first responders.” Through the organization of the Nursing Emergency Preparedness Education Coalition (NEPEC), nursing leaders began to question the preparedness of our 2.7 million nurses. It became important to document emergency preparedness curricula prior to 911, and following that event, in order to plan strategically to address educational needs for our nation’s nurses.

Purpose

This study sought to determine the type and level of disaster preparedness curriculum being delivered or in development in all levels of nursing programs in the United States. Given that information, it was feasible to map the content against the competency map also developed by the NEPEC, and then to determine content areas that need to be developed nationally.

Method

The NEPEC worked in collaboration with the National League for Nursing (NLN) to survey 2013 Deans or Directors of nursing schools as to the curriculum for emergency preparedness prior to 911, and during the following academic years. Initial requests were sent via e-mail and the US postal service. Respondents were directed to answer the online survey so that data could be directly entered into a database for purposes of data analysis.

Respondents who chose not to use the online form for data entry could return a print version with their entered choices (thus requiring secondary data entry).

Analysis and Findings

A total of 348 schools of nursing responded to the survey for a response rate of 17.3 percent. All levels of nursing education were represented (LPN/LVN to Doctoral) from all areas of the country except Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Overwhelmingly, the respondents selected curriculum plans (79%) as being of the greatest help to their school to increase the emphasis on disaster preparedness. Competency lists (55%) was selected as the next most useful.

In the Academic Year 00-01 slightly less than a third of the respondents offered any content in disaster preparedness. But by the third academic year (Y02-03) 53% offered such content. Forty-six (46) percent of the respondents indicated that they did not offer any disaster preparedness content during any of the three years of the survey.

Trends across the three academic years for all educational levels were remarkably similar. There was an increase in the number of schools offering content in all areas of disaster preparedness over the three years and across all educational levels. Content related to natural, biological and chemical events was more frequent than content related to nuclear, radiological or explosive events. Overall there was a significant increase in the number of schools offering content in all six areas with a decline in the number of school offering content regarding natural events only.

These survey results validated the general assumption that nursing programs provide limited curriculum content in disaster preparedness. The mean number of hours of disaster preparedness content provided did not change significantly over three academic years staying at approximately 4.5 to 5 hours (means ranged from 4.4 in YR 00-01 to 5.1 in YR 02-03). Furthermore, almost 75% of the respondents felt that faculty in nursing were inadequately prepared in the area of disaster preparedness.

Implications for Nursing

This study has demonstrated the lack of emergency preparedness curriculum content in US nursing programs and established a baseline for future curriculum growth. These results will be used to map curriculum content against the NEPEC competency map. Nursing organizations, as well as individuals, will be able to assess their learning needs against national nursing standards and to determine content areas that need to be developed nationally.

Weiner, E., Irwin, M., Trangenstein, P., & Gordon, J.(2005). Emergency preparedness curriculum in US nursing schools, Survey Results. Nursing Education Perspectives, 26(6), 334-339.