Capacity and Willingness of Nurses in Select Hospital in Manila to Report at the Aftermath of Disasters

Abstract

When disaster strikes, no one is respected. Rich or poor, strong or weak, learned and or uneducated suffer the wrath of a catastrophe. Calamity knows no one. Nurses and their families can be victims of a tragic events too. Disasters that took lives, damaged properties and disrupted social services in the country did not spare the nurses who were supposed to take care of their victims. Nurses are faced with the ethical dilemma of reporting to work at the aftermath of disasters. Nurses may be forced to report for work and care for other people though they themselves, their family and their properties need caring as well at the aftermath of disasters. Nurses need to make a decision whether to report or not as there may be considerable number of nurses who might not be able to report for work and patient care may be jeopardized, hence compromising public health. Being in a disaster prone country, Philippine nurses’ personal and professional responsibilities collide in a disaster aftermath. The ethical principle of fidelity implies that the nurse must honor his promise and commitment to care for his patients. It is a reality though that nurses also have family members to think of and care of. Despite the country’s experience with many different kinds of disasters, there is a dearth of study that explore nurses’ capacity and willingness to report at the aftermath of a disaster event. This study will try to fill in such gap. This descriptive exploratory research focused on the capacity and willingness of nurses of a major city-run hospital to report for work at the aftermath of a disaster using a self-made questionnaire. Further, it attempted to identify the barriers to the capacity and willingness of respondent nurses to report to work at the aftermath of a disaster. Respondent nurses (N=150) were mostly female, between ages 21 –60 (mean of 35), ward nurses, resides in areas with 30 minutes travel time from the hospital, and mostly had children and pets to take care of. The study revealed that respondent nurses are likely capable of reporting to work after fire, and storm. There is however uncertainty as to the capacity to report for work at the aftermath of a tornado, flooding, chemical explosion and earthquake. Likewise, the respondents are uncertain of their willingness to report at the aftermath of almost all disasters except for storm (likely willing). The major barrier to reporting at the after of disasters identified by respondent nurses is the concern for dependent children. Other barriers mentioned are fear or concern for family, availability of transportation and fear for one’s safety. Further study should be done to explore the ethical dilemma –personaland professional that such ‘force majeure’ will have on Filipino nurses who may want to continue serving their patients but also have families to care for.