Abstract
Sixty-eight disaster planners in manufacturing companies from the state of Washington provided information pertaining to their disaster planning practices by completing a mailed questionnaire. A checklist-grid format of nineteen emergency care procedures was presented to respondents with four questions asked in relation to each procedure.
Less than half of the sample reported that the protocols are utilized in written plans, disaster drills or educational procedures. Thirty-five percent of the respondents indicated that no internal accountability exists for all of the 19 procedures. Ten percent to thirty percent of the sample of respondents reported that no internal or external accountability exists for all of the 19 procedures. Respondents reported that disaster drills and real disaster events rarely occur within the time interval of a year; less than ten percent of the respondents have drills or real events in a year for each of the protocols. Twenty-five percent to forty-five percent of the respondents reported they do not have education and teaching for each of the disaster procedures and protocols. The majority of respondents (54.4%) had no education in disaster planning as well.
The data show that large- and medium-sized rather than small-sized companies more frequently utilize disaster preparedness strategies including written plans and disaster drills. Twenty-one (approximately 30%) of the respondents out of a total of 68 stated that their companies engaged in post-drill evaluations and critiques. Nineteen out of 68 respondents modify their written plans following the disaster critique.
The protocols for which occupational health nurses mainly play a primary role include employee safety and first aid, employee information/awareness, and lead in emergency shelter and employee care. However, the 68 respondents recognized occupational health nurses as participants at a ten % or less rate.
The extent to which implementation of disaster procedures was based on written protocol guidelines and educational training or mandated by internal accountability was difficult to determine from the data due to the dissimilarity of the sample. These data, however, suggest that disaster protocol usage is not a widely established practice for this sample of disaster planners.