Exploring the influence of hospital staff education on fire safety preparedness

Background India is among countries with high mortality and morbidity rates from fire-related incidents. Fires at healthcare facilities can be more devastating than any other place at any time as they house more vulnerable people. Knowledge and experience of hospital workers and managers largely determine hospital preparedness. Methods A questionnaire-based interventional study was conducted in the advanced cardiac centre of a tertiary care institute. Ninety healthcare workers from different areas were included. We assessed the knowledge of hospital staff about fire safety practices and the effect of fire safety education on knowledge and practice. Results We observed that most participants reported appropriate practices, which increased significantly after the education. Among 90 participants, baseline awareness of immediate fire response and exit routes was high (100%). Fire safety education led to a significant improvement in knowledge, with correct responses for type B fire increasing from 7.8% to 48.9%, and correct identification of foam extinguisher use rising from 28.9% to 43.3% (p<0.05), alongside a marked reduction in ‘don’t know’ responses (22.2% to 4.4%). Practice-related responses also improved significantly post-intervention, with a higher proportion of participants reporting appropriate fire safety practices across domains. Discussion We found a statistically significant positive moderate correlation between knowledge and practice scores, indicating that knowledge and practice are related to each other affected by significant randomness.