Abstract:
It is essential that all health care workers, regardless of profession or position, understand at least the basic
concepts of emergency preparedness because of the wide variety of roles they may be asked to fulfill in an
emergency situation. The study was aimed at investigating the emergency preparedness of nurses working in the
trauma section at federal medical center keffi, Nasarawa state. A descriptive survey method with questionnaire as
the tool for data collection was adopted for the study and purposive sample technique was utilsed to select 150
participant among nurses. Data analysis was achieved using the statistical package of social science version 26.0
and result presented using tables, frequencies and percentages, mean and standard deviations. Major finding shows
that the nurses understood the concepts of emergency preparedness with the following findings; level of
emergency preparedness 107(71.3%) capacity to effectively manage trauma cases 112(74.7%), and experience of
health workers 104(69.3%) respectively and were willing to respond to emergency. The study also identified
barriers such as Inadequate /training workshop 75(50.0%), absence of incentives 92(61.3%), (delay in salary 71
(47.3%) disbursement and promotion 56(37.3%)), inadequate working equipment51 (34.0%) and insufficient
medical consumables73 (48.7%), as well as inadequate manpower 51(34.0%) among others were factors affecting
staff willingness to embrace emergency preparedness. The study suggested that the authority should address and
provide adequate and enabling environment (continued education and training programs, disaster-related
education centers and educational opportunities on various types of disasters, timely salary payment and
motivation to serve as an encouragement for the staff to boast staff moral in the discharge of their duties, and
further studies be conducted to cover a wider spectrum.
