Awareness Levels of Public Relations Officers in the Incident Management Team in Disaster and Emergency in Hospitals

Abstract

Abstract

Healthcare institutions not only provide healthcare services in disasters or emergencies, but also inform their internal and external stakeholders about the balance sheet of the disaster. In emergency situations in health institutions, this task is fulfilled by the public relations officer defined in the Hospital Disaster and Emergency Plan. The problem of the study is that the public relations activities included in hospital disaster plans are not actively implemented in the recent earthquake disasters in our country. Within the framework of this problem, the study aimed to measure the level of knowledge of public relations officers defined in the plan in public, private and university hospitals providing tertiary health care services that take an active role in disasters and emergencies and to evaluate the public relations activities carried out in hospitals during earthquakes in 2020 and 2023. In order to measure the level of knowledge of public relations officers, a semi-structured interview form was prepared and applied to the public relations officers of three hospitals and the answers given were analyzed comparatively. The study is important in terms of addressing a specific area by evaluating the public relations processes in the hospital disaster plan. In the study, it was found that the public relations officers of the three hospitals did not have sufficient basic knowledge about the plan, their knowledge about emergency codes, which will help to manage the incident in a short time in emergencies, was quite limited, and they did not carry out public relations activities in accordance with the hospital disaster and emergency plan in emergencies and disasters. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the public relations officers assigned in the disaster plan in hospitals do not have a good command of the duties, authorities and responsibilities defined in the plan, their level of knowledge about the disaster plan is limited, public relations officers do not carry out activities in line with the disaster plan in disasters, and public relations officers of university and public hospitals have a higher level of knowledge about the disaster plan.

In the study, it was found that the public relations officers of three hospitals did not have sufficient basic knowledge about the plan, their knowledge about emergency codes, which would help to manage the incident in a short time in emergencies, was quite limited, and they did not carry out public relations activities in accordance with the hospital disaster and emergency plan in emergencies and disasters. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the public relations officers assigned in the disaster plan in hospitals do not have a good command of the duties, authorities and responsibilities defined in the plan, their level of knowledge about the disaster plan is limited, public relations officers do not carry out activities in line with the disaster plan in disasters, and public relations officers of university and public hospitals have a higher level of knowledge about the disaster plan.