Teachers’Awareness Regarding Emergency Preparedness at Industrial Secondary Schools at Minia Governorate

Background: Schools prepared for emergency can save lives, minimize damage and return to normal operations in less time. Industrial schools exposed to many emergency situations, including fires, hazardous accidents, chemical leaks or other emergencies. Teachers have essential role in caring for students in an emergency. Aim: to assess teachers' awareness regarding emergency preparedness at industrial secondary schools at Minia governorate. Research design: A descriptive cross sectional research design. Sample: A multistage random sampling of 440 teachers. Data Collection Tools: Tool (I): A self-administered questionnaire includes two parts. Part 1: Demographic characteristics for teachers, Part 2: History of previous school emergencies. Tool (II): A self-administered questionnaire includes three parts. Part 1: Teachers' knowledge regarding school emergency plan. Part 2: Teachers' knowledge regarding evacuation procedure, Part 3: Teachers' knowledge regarding first aid. Tool III: Disaster Attitude Scale (DAS). Results: Mean age of participating teachers was 47.30 ± 6.948 yrs. 39.5% of them had poor level of knowledge regarding school emergency preparedness and 76.4% of them had negative attitude regarding school emergency preparedness. Conclusion: Above one third of participating teachers had poor level of knowledge about school emergency preparedness and majority of them had negative attitude regarding school emergency preparedness. There was a positive correlation between participants’ knowledge score and their attitude regarding emergency preparedness in schools. Recommendations: Implementing continuous workplace safety, emergency preparedness and first aid training for school teachers.