Background: The disaster situations call upon the effective and speedy response from the nurses. The link to self-perceived competence in disaster preparedness remains unclear, although there is strong support for competence in nursing practice to ensure safe patient care.
Aims: The study aims to evaluate the self-perceived competence and familiarity of nurses at personal and professional levels concerning disaster preparedness. Cross-sectional exploratory design was employed. A sample of 350 nurses from five government hospitals in Medina was surveyed using an emergency preparedness information questionnaire.
Patients and methods: IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows, Version 21.0, was used for analyzing the data.
Results: Nurses perceived inadequate preparation for emergencies. The unit area had no impact on their self-perceived competence and familiarity.
Conclusions: Female nurses, non-Saudi staff, and years of work experience were perceived to increase nurse competence in disaster preparedness. The managers can create activities to enable nurses to learn and view their disaster preparedness concerns.
Keywords: Disaster preparedness; Saudi nurses; perceived competence; personal characteristics; work-related characteristics.