Abstract:
Background: The numbers of disasters are increasing day by day all over the world. Nurses
are the fundamental element in preparedness, they have to know and understand well all
information related to mass casualty preparedness. Developing countries including Rwanda
are at high risks due to many factors like population growth, climate change, terrorism,
technology, road traffic accident, floods periods, earthquake, terrorists‟ acts, refugee holding
etc.., these cause loss of life and other life threading. Regardless of these, there are no
available documents in Rwanda on how nurses are prepared to receive and manage mass
casualties.
Purpose and significance of the study: assess nurses‟ knowledge, attitude and practice
regarding mass casualty preparedness in RMH. The research findings from this study have
impact to nurses‟ preparedness, education and to further research.
Methodology: Quantitative cross sectional descriptive method used, 90 nurses selected by
using total population sampling strategy from A&E, ICU and OT. Pilot conducted among 10
nurses, data were analyzed by using SPSS and presented in the form of figures and tables.
Results: Findings show that 38.2% working in theater, 52.6% of nurses, their working
experience were between 1-5 years, most of them didn‟t know the correct definition of
disaster and other elements related to disaster plan, which demonstrate their inadequacy
knowledge (61.8%), the level of attitude was negative (53%) and their practice was poor
(78%).
Conclusion: Nurses‟ attitude was negative, they have inadequate knowledge and poor
practice in terms of ongoing training and simulations related to mass casualty preparedness.
