Determination of disaster literacy levels of personnel working within the Head Physician of Istanbul Anatolian Provincial Ambulance Service

Personnel working in emergency health services stations provide health services in emergencies and disasters. These personnel are usually the first to receive the notification and reach the area first. It is important that the level of disaster literacy (knowledge, skills and attitude) against emergencies and disasters is in good condition for the personnel to respond to complex events accurately, safely and quickly. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between disaster literacy levels and sub-factors of disaster literacy (damage reduction, preparedness, response and recovery) of the personnel working in the Istanbul Anatolian Provincial Ambulance Service Head Physician, which provides health services in disasters. In the study, 412 people were reached and face-to-face survey method was used. SPSS program was used in the analysis of the data. The disaster literacy scale mean scores of the participants were found to be 3.64±0.606. In this study, it was found that the mean scores of the disaster literacy scale and sub-dimensions of the participants working in the head physician unit were higher than those working in other units. It was found that the mean scores of the preparedness sub-dimension of the participants who took part in disasters were higher than those who did not take part in disasters. It is recommended that disaster literacy studies be carried out on other professional groups, NGO workers and volunteers who will take part in emergencies and disasters, and evaluation of the results.