Disaster Nursing Education in Undergraduate Nursing Program

Objectives This study aimed to provide a future direction for disaster nursing education for undergraduate nursing students by analyzing the current status of disaster nursing education and its trends during the recent 5 years in Korea. Methods This study collected data of disaster nursing related subjects from 183 undergraduate nursing programs which publicly posted its curriculum on the website among 193 nursing colleges with a valid accreditation for nursing education as of February 1, 2025. As a way of identifying the trends of disaster nursing education, the authors analyzed data from 52 nursing schools which provided curricular from 2020 to 2024. Results 103 (56.3%) out of 183 nursing colleges offered disaster nursing related subjects. They were operated as nursing major electives (84.3%), didactic classes (91.7%), 2 credits classes (63.9%), and for senior students (58.3%). For the name of subject, the combination of ‘emergency’ and ‘disaster nursing’ were most frequently used, accounting for 63.0%. The rate of opening disaster nursing related subjects in 52 nursing colleges jumped up from 29 (55.8%) in 2020 to 51 (98.1%) in 2024. Conclusions As occurrence of disaster increases, the importance of nurses’ disaster response competency increases as well. However, the rate of undergraduate programs with no separate disaster nursing subjects is still high. Therefore, nursing colleges need to open and run disaster nursing education as mandatory subjects with skills sessions and simulations. Also, they should provide nursing students with opportunities to practice multidisciplinary collaboration in the subjects.