What are the most common domains of the core competencies of disaster nursing? A scoping review.
Abdullelah Al Thobaity, Virginia Plummer, Brett Williams
PMID 28029612WHAT IT FOUND
A scoping review of 12 studies found no unified standards for disaster nursing competencies, but identified five recurring domains: communication, planning, decontamination and safety, incident command systems, and ethics.
Key findings
01The most common competency domains across the reviewed studies were communication, planning, decontamination and safety, incident command systems (ICS), and ethics.
02There are currently no unified, empirically validated standards for disaster nursing competencies, and terminology varies significantly across studies.
03The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and WHO framework is the only one developed specifically for determining core competencies, identifying 10 domains across approximately 130 competencies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review was restricted to English-language publications, potentially missing relevant international frameworks. Most included studies were conducted in the United States, limiting the generalisability of the findings to other healthcare systems and cultures. The included studies used diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, expert opinion), making direct comparison and synthesis difficult. None of the competency frameworks identified had been empirically validated, meaning their effectiveness in improving disaster response outcomes is unproven.
Declared interests
The authors declared no actual or potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these five domains as a validated or mandatory standard for disaster nursing competency. The review found no unified or empirically tested framework, and the domains emerged from inconsistent literature that mostly originated in the US and was limited to English-language sources.