Healthcare Workers’ Resilience Toolkit for Disaster Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Heba Mohtady Ali (), Jamie Ranse, Anne Roiko and Cheryl Desha
Additional contact information
Heba Mohtady Ali: Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia
Jamie Ranse: Department of Emergency Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia
Anne Roiko: Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia
Cheryl Desha: Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: Climate change has been recognised as a multiplier of risk factors affecting public health. Disruptions caused by natural disasters and other climate-driven impacts are placing increasing demands on healthcare systems. These, in turn, impact the wellness and performance of healthcare workers (HCWs) and hinder the accessibility, functionality and safety of healthcare systems. This study explored factors influencing HCWs’ disaster management capabilities with the aim of improving their resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen HCWs who dealt with disasters within two hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Analysis of the results identified two significant themes, HCWs’ disaster education and HCWs’ wellness and needs. The latter comprised five subthemes: HCWs’ fear and vulnerability, doubts and uncertainty, competing priorities, resilience and adaptation, and needs assessment. This study developed an ‘HCWs Resilience Toolkit’, which encourages mindfulness amongst leaders, managers and policymakers about supporting four priority HCWs’ needs: ‘Wellness’, ‘Education’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Communication’. The authors focused on the ‘Education’ component to detail recommended training for each of the pre-disaster, mid-disaster and post-disaster phases. The authors conclude the significance of the toolkit, which provides a timely contribution to the healthcare sector amidst ongoing adversity.

Keywords: healthcare workers (HCWs); hospitals; climate change adaptation; disaster resilience; toolkit; management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12440/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12440/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12440-:d:929448

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().