49 Disaster Resilient Australia: Get Ready I Future considerations for Australian nurses and their disaster educational preparedness: a discussion Jamie Ranse (University of Canberra), Karen Hammad (Flinders University) and Dr Kristen Ranse (University of Canberra) examine the education challenges and needs to prepare Australian nurses for disaster response. ABSTRACT Australian nurses have been active participants in disaster assistance both within the in-hospital and out-of-hospital environment. This paper discusses the current disaster education opportunities and challenges for nurses. Additionally, various educational strategies for different cohorts of nurses are discussed highlighting the need for education to be targeted at the right cohort of nurses, at the right time, using the right strategy. To enhance the educational preparedness of Australian nurses and subsequently their willingness to assist in a disaster it is suggested that the education should replicate the realities of ‘what it is like’ to assist in a disaster. Additionally, education should be positioned within a national framework for disaster health education. Introduction A disaster can be broadly defined as an event which results in the interruption of the functioning of a community resulting in the need for external resources to maintain essential services (TFQCDM/WADEM, 2002). One such resource includes the mobilisation of health professionals, including nurses, to provide assistance and maintain or re-establish the day-to- day operational capacity of a health service facility following a disaster event. Australian nurses have actively participated in disaster assistance 1 in both the in-hospital and out-of- hospital contexts in local, national and international 1 The term ‘disaster assistance’ is used throughout this paper to describe all phases of disaster as Australian nurses participate in disaster assistance across the disaster continuum from disaster prevention to disaster recovery. environments (Arbon et al. 2006, Grindlay et al. 2010, McArdle 2011, Ranse, Lenson & Aimers 2010, Serghis 1998, Taylor et al. 2003). In Australia, nurses have traditionally assisted during natural or conventional disasters such as extreme weather events and bushfires, while assistance in man-made or non- conventional disasters such as terrorist events has been limited. When a disaster happens, emergency, intensive care and peri-operative areas are commonly affected and, as such, nurses from these specialities assist. It is usually this nursing cohort that participates in out-of-hospital events. In addition, there is an increasing amount of literature highlighting the role of nurses from other specialty areas participating in disaster assistance (Hayes 2011, McArdle 2011). While there is an increasing amount of literature pertaining to the involvement of Australian nurses in disasters, these accounts are predominately descriptive in nature. However, we do know that Australian nurses have an increased willingness to assist in a disaster if they have completed formal education that includes disaster content (Arbon et al. 2013b, Considine & Mitchell 2009). Therefore, fundamental to the participation of nurses in disaster assistance, is the nurse’s individual educational preparedness. Disaster event exercising in hospitals is an important part of hospital and nursing staff emergency preparations. Image: ACT Health