While having responded to hundreds of disaster events over the last six years, new research suggests Australian nurses still aren’t ready for the impact of catastrophe.

Almost one disaster event every 10 days has occurred in Australia since 2019, according to the research led by Charles Darwin University (CDU).

A disaster is considered to be an event that disrupts human populations through natural or man-made disasters, or communicable disease outbreaks.

During the pandemic, nurses were a reactive rather than proactive workforce in the public health emergency despite being the largest cohort of healthcare professionals to deal with the aftermath of disaster, said study lead, CDU Health Science Course Coordinator Angela Sheedy.

The Hunter Valley bus crash, Bondi Junction shopping centre stabbing, and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) contamination are other examples of recent disasters that involved the response of healthcare professionals.

“Australian-trained nurses are amongst the best in the world, but we are experiencing disaster events more frequently, and this directly impacts nurses working in the acute care and emergency settings,” Ms Sheedy said.

“Better-prepared nurses mean better outcomes for communities in disaster responses.”

The diversity of modern disaster events in response to climate change, radicalisation and terrorism, and public health challenges makes being prepared for anything a complicated undertaking.

Disaster response in tertiary curriculum

Disaster response training was not currently mandatory for bachelor-level nurses, which is leaving graduates without the resilience to adapt to many real-world scenarios, argues Ms Sheedy.

“The inclusion of disaster responses with an all-hazards approach needs to be included in the Australian curriculum, but this takes time,” she said.

“We need to start thinking and planning realistic strategies to prepare our health workforce for disaster responses.

“Providing our nurses with access to all-hazards education and training aligns with the world today.”

The open access paper is published in peer-reviewed journal Health Emergency and Disaster Nursing