Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly
Year:2017 | Volume:2 | Issue:3|Papers Count:5

Background: Many organizations, especially at the time of accidents, disasters, and critical conditions, cannot provide their services without the presence of volunteers. When accidents and disasters occur, the first persons who normally appear at the scene are citizens. Volunteer citizens with the skills and local knowledge can play important roles when accidents and disasters occur and can provide valuable assistance to the relief forces. The current article aimed at examining the role of volunteer citizens in response to accidents and disasters.Materials and Methods: The current study examined the published articles from 2000 to 2016 based on the following keywords: informal volunteers in the disasters, challenges facing volunteer citizens in accidents and disasters, informal volunteers and disasters in local and foreign electronic databases including SID, Magiran, Iran Medex, ISC, Google Scholar, PubMed, ISI, and Scopus.Results: Based on the search strategy, 50 articles were examined and the keywords, definitions, volunteer roles, role of volunteers in accidents and disasters, various types of informal voluntary activities, and volunteer citizens’ participation were examined.Conclusion: Studies referred to the roles, definitions, and challenges that informal volunteers face in various stages of accidents and disasters and the obvious point in the research was that more adaptive and comprehensive crisis and emergency management models are needed to utilize the capacities and flexibility of volunteers available within and between communities in disasters, and the network structure management can be helpful to manage the volunteers.

Background: Healthy and hygienic foods should be available for healthy life of humans in all circumstances. This issue will be more important when a disaster occurrs. Iran is among high risk natural disaster countries, that should be always prepared. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of Gonabad University Medical students about nutrition and food preservation at times of disaster.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted on 360 students out of 1800 Medical Sciences students of Gonabad University who were selected by stratified random sampling method in 2016. A self-designed questionnaire consisting of 10 questions with acceptable validity and reliability was used with Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.8. Finally, the data were analyzed by 1-sample t-test and Mann -Whitney test through SPSS 16.Results: The results showed that 39%, 35.5%, and 25.5% of the participants had a good, moderate, and low level of awareness about nutrition and preservation in disasters, respectively. No significant difference was observed between genders (P>0.05), and fields of study with regard to their awareness (P=0.002).Conclusion: It was found that the students' awareness about nutrition and food preservation at times of disaster was poor. Thus, to achieve a successful disaster management, it is recommended that an appropriate instruction manual of nutrition and food preservation be prepared by disaster response agencies and be taught for the guidance of students

Background: Hospitals need volunteers to help the injured people during disasters. Thus, it is necessary to prepare some criteria for selecting volunteers. The purpose of this study was to determine and prioritize individual and social criteria for selection of local volunteers in hospitals before disasters, the volunteers who provide health services for victims in disasters.Materials and Methods: This was an analytical descriptive study in which a researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect the data in 2015. The statistical population consisted of emergency and health managers and experts in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The sample were selected using Cochrane methodology and calculated as 180 subjects. The data were analyzed through calculating mean, standard deviation, 1-sample t-test, and Friedman test using SPSS.Results: Based on the results, most personal and social criteria were significant (P≤0.05) and important in volunteers’ selection. The results showed that the most important personal criteria were physical ability and fitness, practical expertise, and voluntary attendance experience with the mean ranks of 4.03, 3.94, and 3.77, respectively. Also among social criteria, prompt response with the mean rank of 7.26, responsibility with 6.25, and conscience with 6.06 have been determined as important factors in the selection of volunteers for health services of hospitals in disasters.Conclusion: Hospitals could select volunteers based on the determined criteria. Personal criteria of physical fitness and practical expertise along with social criteria of prompt response and responsibility were reliable norms that based on them, the best volunteers could be chosen to perform health duties and decrease injuries in relief and health services.

Background: Pre-hospital emergency service is an important part of any health care system.The present study was conducted to evaluate the pre-hospital Emergency Services 115 of Mashhad City, Iran with emphasis on response to traffic accidents during 2012-2013.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional and applied study, 53685 files of traffic accident victims related to 42240 missions accomplished during 2012-2013 were evaluated. The study data were collected by referring to the statistics unit of the Center for Medical Emergencies and Accidents. To determine the services performed for the victims, a researcher-designed checklist was used. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the raw data. All analyses were done by Excel 2013.Results: The average (SD) age of traffic accident victims was 29.5 (15.69) years. The frequency of accidents was more in September, on Thursdays, and between 6 and 9 PM. About 70% of missions ended with the transfer the injured to hospitals and average (SD) response times were 8: 24 (2: 35) minutes in 2012 and 9: 01 (2: 46) minutes in 2013. The frequency of treatment and dispatch to hospitals by the resident physician were reported as 70.51% in 2012 and 69.7% in 2013. The most frequent action taken were injections (96%) and then stabilizing body limbs (60%).Conclusion: Considering the findings of this research, the response time was longer than the standard time. Regarding the performed services, shortcomings in manpower and ambulance equipment can reduce the effectiveness of missions. Therefore, Emergency Center 115 of Mashhad should carry out some interventions to resolve shortages in manpower and equipment to reach standard conditions and provide better services.

Background: Experience of difficult incidents, besides its negative and adverse consequences, can have positive consequences and lead to the growth of people in several areas. Evaluating the status of posttraumatic growth in earthquake survivors could help better understand the various dimensions of this incident. The present study aimed to evaluate the status of posttraumatic growth in East Azerbaijan earthquake survivors.Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical research. The study population consisted of East Azerbaijan earthquake survivors and the study sample included 295 survivors randomly selected from those who were eligible for the study. The research tools were a demographic questionnaire and posttraumatic growth inventory.Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants was 43 (14.3) years, and 50.5% of them were male. The mean (SD) of the posttraumatic growth score of the study sample was 48.25 (21.18). The findings of this study showed that among posttraumatic growth dimensions, "spiritual changes" (11.11 [5.1]) and "connecting with others" (4.9 [2.3]) had the highest score, while the "new possibilities" got the lowest score (16.3 [7.19]).Conclusion: Posttraumatic growth issue requires further attention in the mental and social health policies. The study results indicate that despite the many problems that the earthquake creates for people, dealing with this disaster leads to positive psychological effects on people, too.