Examining the anxiety levels and individual preparedness of healthcare workers against a possible earthquake

ABSTRACT A descriptive study was conducted to investigate the anxiety levels and individual preparedness of healthcare workers against a possible earthquake in the Mucur district of Kırşehir. The universe of the study consists of a total of 205 healthcare workers working in Mucur State Hospital, Mucur Community Health Center, Mucur Emergency Health Services (stations 1 and 2), and Mucur Family Health Center. Before starting the research, ethics committee approval was obtained from Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, permission from the institutions where the research would be conducted, and informed consent from the participants. No sample was selected from the universe and an attempt was made to reach all of them. The number of participants reached was 201. The following were applied to the individuals included in the sample: Introductory information form (ANNEX-2), individual preparedness form for healthcare workers for earthquake (ANNEX-3), state/trait anxiety scale (ANNEX-4). The data obtained in the research were analyzed in the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 program. The conformity of the quantitative variables to normality distribution was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Since it was not normally distributed, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used. Chi-square (x2) test was used for comparison of categorical variables. p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. When the participants' individual preparedness for an earthquake is examined, the rate of those who think that a major earthquake will occur in the city they currently live in is 8.5%. The rate of those who think that they are prepared to cope with a major earthquake is determined as 17.4%. 87.6% of the participants in the research think that it is important to live prepared for an earthquake. 32.8% of the participants stated that precautions are taken against earthquakes in their workplaces. 33.3% of the participants stated that they have made plans/meetings with their family members to prepare for a possible earthquake. The rate of those who know what behaviors should be done during an earthquake is more than half. The rate of participants who received training on earthquakes/disasters was found to be low. There was no significant difference between the state of thinking that they are individually prepared to cope with a major earthquake and their socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, place of residence, marital status, number of children, education level, title-profession) (p>0.05). When the participants' state and trait anxiety scale mean scores were examined; according to the mean score of the responses given to the state anxiety scale (score±sd: 41.8±7.69), it was determined that the participants were moderately anxious, and according to the mean score of the responses given to the trait anxiety scale (score±sd: 38.1±8.17), it was determined that they were mildly anxious. There was no significant difference between the state and trait anxiety scale mean scores according to the state of thinking that the participants were individually prepared to cope with a major earthquake (p>0.05). Keyword: Healthcare workers, Earthquake, Anxiety levels, Preparedness