Workforce preparedness for disasters: perceptions of clinical and non-clinical staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dobalian A, Balut MD, Der-Martirosian C. Workforce preparedness for disasters: perceptions of clinical and non-clinical staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BMC public health. 2020 Oct 2; 20(1):1501.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Most U.S. studies on workforce preparedness have a narrow scope, focusing primarily on perceptions of clinical staff in a single hospital and for one type of disaster. In contrast, this study compares the perceptions of workplace disaster preparedness among both clinical and non-clinical staff at all U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities nationwide for three types of disasters (natural, epidemic/pandemic, and manmade). METHODS: The VA Preparedness Survey used a stratified simple random, web-based survey (fielded from October through December 2018) of all employees at VA medical facilities. We conducted bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to compare the sociodemographic characteristics and perceptions of disaster preparedness between clinical and non-clinical VA staff. RESULTS: The study population included 4026 VA employees (2488 clinicians and 1538 non-clinicians). Overall, VA staff were less confident in their medical facility''s ability to respond to epidemic/pandemics and manmade disasters. Depending on the type of disaster, clinical staff, compared to non-clinical staff, were less likely to be confident in their VA medical facility''s ability to respond to natural disasters (OR:0.78, 95% CI:0.67-0.93, p? < 0.01), pandemics (OR:0.82, 95% CI:0.70-0.96, p? < 0.05), and manmade disasters (OR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.63-0.86, p? < 0.001). On the other hand, clinicians, compared to non-clinicians, were 1.45 to 1.78 more likely to perceive their role in disaster response to be important (natural OR:1.57, 95% CI:1.32-1.87; pandemic OR:1.78, 95% CI:1.51-2.10; manmade: OR:1.45; 95% CI: 1.23-1.71; p''s? < 0.001), and 1.27 to 1.29 more likely to want additional trainings to prepare for all three types of disasters (natural OR:1.29, 95% CI:1.10-1.51; pandemic OR:1.27, 95% CI:1.08-1.49; manmade OR:1.29; 95% CI:1.09-1.52; p''s? < 0.01). Clinicians were more likely to be women, younger, and more educated (p''s? < 0.001) than non-clinicians. Compared to clinicians, non-clinical staff had been employed longer with the VA (p? < 0.025) and were more likely to have served in the U.S. Armed Forces (p? < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest both a desire and a need for additional training, particularly for clinicians, and with a focus on epidemics/pandemics and manmade disasters. Training programs should underscore the importance of non-clinical roles when responding to disasters.