Evaluation of emergency aid and disaster management students disaster awareness and attitudes towards disasters (Gumushane province example)

Reducing the negative effects of disasters is possible with successful disaster management and increasing the awareness of the society against disasters. This research was conducted to evaluate the disaster awareness and attitudes of the students of Gumushane University Faculty of Health Sciences, Emergency Aid and Disaster Management Department. The population of the cross-sectional and descriptive study consisted of students (501 people) studying in the department where the research was conducted in April-June 2021. No sampling method was chosen and it was planned to reach the entire population, and 349 people were reached by applying online via google form due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data of the research; The questionnaire consisting of questions to evaluate the views of students on sociodemographic characteristics, disaster, disaster management, disaster awareness, disaster preparedness, attitudes towards disasters and Disaster Attitude Scale (ATS) questions created by the researchers by examining the literature was applied online. Frequency, t test, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, ANOVA test and correlation analysis were used in the statistical analysis of the data. 57.0% of the students included in the study were women and their mean age was 21.81±2.25 years. The students who knew the disaster risks and the location of the assembly areas in the province had a higher mean score of ATS than the other students. Emergency aid and disaster management show more positive attitudes towards disasters as the age of students increases and the number of people exposed to disasters in the family decreases. In this study, it was determined that the disaster attitudes of the students studying in the Department of Emergency Aid and Disaster Management of the Faculty of Health Sciences of Gümüshane University were above the medium level in the cognitive, affective and general dimensions, while the behavioral dimension had an average below the medium level.