Examining the Readiness of the Personnel of One of the Hospitals in Zanjan City in the Area of the Incident Command System during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors
Elham Karimi
Sama Karimi
Negin Parsa
Ghazal Mirhosseini
10.61186/ibj.25th-11th-IACRTIMSS
Abstract
Introduction: Disasters are events that occur unexpectedly and sometimes inevitably. Due to the extent of the impact on material and human resources and the disruption of the natural process of life, they are beyond the ability of societies to adapt. Among the service providers, medical centers and hospitals are among the first organizations involved in responding to disasters, and their services can play a vital and decisive role. In the meantime, hospital personnel are on the front line of responding to disasters. The incident command system is a management system used to control and reduce damage caused by an accident. The preparation of hospital personnel in the scope of the incident command system during the COVID-19 pandemic can effectively improve their performance in the response phase.

Methods and Materials: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 300 personnel of Zanjan Hospital were selected by random sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire to assess the readiness of nurses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data obtained from the questionnaires were evaluated with SPSS software, and the results were recorded. Most of the participating personnel in this research were women, with a mean age of 67.3%. The average age of the participants in this research was between 20 and 40 years old. The majority of the participants in this study had professional education. The level of preparation of hospital personnel was found to be inadequate, ranging from 12.34 to 25.14. This outcome was assessed separately for male and female personnel, with scores of 11.22 to 14.25 for male and 10.33 to 22.16 for females.

Results: The ANOVA test results showed a significant difference in the readiness of hospital personnel. There was no significant relationship between readiness and other demographic characteristics.

Conclusion and Discussion: Our findings showed that the level of preparedness of hospital personnel in the area of incident command was not optimal in dealing with COVID-19. Therefore, solutions such as training and proper management should be implemented to strengthen personnel in this field. Also, improving preparedness in the area of incident command should be one of the priorities of hospital management.

Keywords
COVID-19
Hospital personnel
Hospitals