A 30 year follow-up on red cross and red crescent nursing educations and activites responding to local and global vulnerability and disasters

• Introduction: From its very inception in 1863, the Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement has worked towards assisting vulnerable people, and as long as the nursing profession has existed, nurses have been ready to respond to public health threats. The main aim of the current research project was to perform a 30-year follow-up to investigate to what extent nurses’ competences are utilized within the RCRC 186 National Societies and to identify Societies running nursing education programmes, including identification of education in nursing disaster preparedness and response. Methods: The questionnaire from 1979 was slightly adapted to reflect the current global health situation and sent to all 186 National Societies. The questionnaire was translated into all four of the International Federation’s official languages. After two reminders, 84/186 replies were received,giving a response rate of 45.2%. Among the 79 National Societies that responded to the 1979 survey, 43 (54.4%) responded to the 2009 survey.ResultsThe results showed that nurses’ competence was regarded as important by a majority (76%) of the National Societies. More than 50% of the National Societies considered nurses’ competence to be specifically important for the International Federation’s working areas, which includes ethics, pandemic/disaste,r preparedness/response and health and care in the community. However, 12% of the National Societies did not consider nurses’ competence important in achieving their national mission. Moreover, we found that there is approximately the same number of RCRC nursing education institutions throughout the world today, as compared with 30 years ago. However, at some institutions a higher level of education (up to PhD) is now offered. Some of the educational institutions are old, starting the nursing education in the mid 19th century, and already from this time with focus on nurses’ help in wars and disasters. Discussion and conclusionThe RCRC Movement is 150 years old and has through history gained a wealth of knowledge and experience of disaster preparedness and response. Most National Societies considered that nursesare important in responding to humanitarian needs and health threats in the community. However, a further utilization of nurses’ competence should be considered as one vehicle to reach the goalsset by national and international organizations to reach quality and access to health, especially among marginalized groups affected by wars and disasters.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Nursing Science

Omvårdnad

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)