• Huahua Yin, Haiyan He, Paul Arbon, and Jingci Zhu.
• Department of Emergency Nursing, School of Nursing, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
• J Adv Nurs. 2011 Oct 1; 67 (10): 2231-8.

AimsTo determine nursing skills most relevant for nurses participating in disaster response medical teams; make recommendations to enhance training of nurses who will be first responders to a disaster site; to improve the capacity of nurses to prepare and respond to severe natural disasters.BackgroundWorldwide, nurses play a key role in disaster response teams at disaster sites. They are often not prepared for the challenges of dealing with mass casualties; little research exists into what basic nursing skills are required by nurses who are first responders to a disaster situation. This study assessed the most relevant disaster nursing skills of first responder nurses at the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake disaster site.MethodData were collected in China in 2008 using a self-designed questionnaire, with 24 participants who had been part of the medical teams that were dispatched to the disaster sites.FindingsThe top three skills essential for nurses were: intravenous insertion; observation and monitoring; mass casualty triage. The three most frequently used skills were: debridement and dressing; observation and monitoring; intravenous insertion. The three skills performed most proficiently were: intravenous insertion; observation and monitoring; urethral catheterization. The top three ranking skills most important for training were: mass casualty transportation; emergency management; haemostasis, bandaging, fixation, manual handling.ConclusionThe core nursing skills for disaster response training are: mass casualty transportation; emergency management; haemostasis, bandaging, fixation, manual handling; observation and monitoring; mass casualty triage; controlling specific infection; psychological crisis intervention; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; debridement and dressing; central venous catheter insertion; patient care recording.© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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