Assessment of nurses’ challenges in crises situation as seen in selected hospitals in Jos Metropolis

Abstract

Background: Civil unrest has become widespread in the last decade in Nigeria. This study was aimed at assessing the challenges of nursing care during violent crisis.
Methods: A descriptive study was carried out on 137 nurses in two selected teaching hospitals in Jos; Jos University Teaching Hospital and Bingham University Teaching Hospitals. Challenges of nursing care during crisis were assessed using a structured questionnaire.
Results: A total of 137 nurses made up of mostly females (77.4%) participated in the survey. The age of participants ranged from 20-60years.The Challenges encountered during, and post crises situation includes: performing non-nurses' duties (56.4%), physical illness; headaches 20.1%, waist pains 26%, and sleeplessness 20%.
Conclusion: Providing nursing care in crisis situation is quite challenging and often resulted in some health problems in nurses. The need for ambulance services, efficient pre-hospital services, dedicated phone lines, well trained personnel (nurses) on emergency response and occasional conduct of emergency drills are advocated.

Keywords: Assessment, Nurses, challenges, crises.