oa Hamad General Hospital-Emergency Department (HGH-ED) staff with mass casualty incident/disaster involving children

Introduction: A mass casualty incident (MCI) or disaster can happen at any time. People at the extremes of ages are affected more especially children. Working in the nation's biggest Emergency Department (ED), Hamad General Hospital (HGH)-ED, staff preparedness is crucial to handle such unfortunate event or events. This study aims to assess the preparedness level, knowledge and the willingness of the HGH-ED staff to deal with MCI/Disaster involving children.

Methods: A prospective descriptive study design-using questionnaire to gather data. The study included a 21-item Questionnaire examining preparedness level, knowledge and the willingness of HGH-ED staff dealing with MCI/Disaster involving children. The questionnaire was send to 720 HGH-ED staff, descriptive statistics were used to describe study variables.

Results: Out of the total responders, 73.5% were ED nurse and 26.4% ED physician the average work experience was 7.81 ± 4.94 years. 74% reported that they have never been involved in disaster/MCI involving children's and 82% of the total responders they don't have any formal training in regard of dealing with pediatric victims of disaster. 64% where either unaware or uncertain about the existence of HGH-ED pediatric specific disaster plan.

Conclusion: The result of our study showed that the preparedness level and the knowledge to deal with disaster/MCI involving children in our ED staff were found to be low due to lack of knowledge of children special needs and lack of experience to deal with children involved in MCI and low level of training that ED staff had.