National Estimates of Nurse Practitioner Disaster Preparedness Training.

Abstract

We aimed to determine nationally representative differences in annual hazard-specific disaster preparedness training by health care provider shortage area (HPSA), practice rurality, patient population, and racial identity. Weighted estimates were generated from National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN) data. 15,408 surveys represented 208,866 nurse practitioners. Almost two-thirds had engaged in any disaster training annual updates. Fewer rural practitioners had trained for chemical (28% vs. 32%) and biological (26% vs. 29%) disasters. Psychiatric nurse practitioners engaged in the least disaster training. Our findings provide a national training needs assessment for policymakers, professional organizations, employers, and individual nurse practitioners.