Knowledge and Attitudes of Students in Khalkhal Medical Sciences Faculty on Health Actions in Emergencies

Background: Health measures in an emergency are one of the cases where damage caused by disasters can be reduced with proper implementation, and the health crisis can be controlled. This requires awareness and knowledge of health and rescue authorities, students, and even people in an emergency situation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge of students’ and attitude in Khalkhal Medical School in the field of emergency health measures. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive-cross sectional study, which was conducted in the 2013-2014 school year in Khalkhal Medical School using a researcher-made questionnaire. Designed questionnaire include questions about personal information, level of knowledge (10 questions) and attitude (10 questions) towards health measures in an emergency. This study was conducted among 200 students who were either in semester 5 or higher. The sampling method was of census-type. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Alpha Cronbach’s Coefficient obtained to be 0.8. To compare mean scores in different groups, one-way ANOVA, chi-square test, and independent T-test were used. Results: The results showed that 8% of students were well aware, 65.5% were moderately aware, and 26% were poorly aware. In addition, 29% of them had right attitude, 15% had moderate attitude, and 9% had a poor attitude towards health measures in emergencies. Among different disciplines regarding knowledge and attitude, no significant difference was observed (P<0.05) and there was a significant difference between age groups regarding the level of knowledge and attitude (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference in knowledge and attitude towards health measures in emergencies among students. Moreover, the results showed that some of the fields under study had a relatively small understanding of health measures in emergencies. Therefore, to enhance their level of knowledge, the need for more detailed planning is felt, and courses should be included for students of the University of Medical Sciences in this regard.

Knowledge and Attitudes of Students in Khalkhal Medical Sciences Faculty on Health Actions in Emergencies Keywords:

Knowledge and attitude , Health measures , Emergencies , Students