Nurses’ Roles, Disaster Preparedness and Management among Elderly during Pandemic

Multitudinous disasters have crippled the country, leaving severe casualties and abundant challenges among many citizens, especially among the vulnerable groups of elderly, who pose increasingly physiological and immunological deficiencies in dealing with disasters, particularly amidst the pandemic. As healthcare professionals, nurses carry crucial responsibilities in providing assistance and management among them to help alleviate their suffering and distress from these circumstances. This quantitative, descriptive- correlational study aims to determine the nurses’ roles among elderly during pandemic, the nurses’ disaster preparedness among elderly during pandemic, the nurses’ disaster management among elderly during pandemic, the challenges among nurses in taking care of elderly during pandemic, and the significant relationship between nurses’ disaster preparedness, nurses’ disaster management and challenges among nurses in taking care of elderly during pandemic. 170 public health nurses working on municipalities within the 30-kmradius around Taal volcano were purposively selected and surveyed via Google forms. Gathered findings revealed that during pandemic, nurses always fulfill their roles in rendering essential health care among the elderly; however, they often experience challenges in taking care of them. Furthermore, they often perform measures for boosting their disaster preparedness and management among this group without being correlated by the challenges they encounter. This study concludes that nurses still require continuous enhancement of their disaster preparedness and management among elderly during pandemic thus, further provision of high standard training programs directing to this is recommended for the supplementary sustainment of the elderly’s significant health care needs fundamental in upholding their well-being.

Keywords – Disaster management, disaster preparedness, elderly, nurses’ roles, pandemic