抄録
This study's aim is to discuss the difficulties experienced throughout a disaster—in this case, an earthquake—as well as acute stress response, which influences the seriousness of the stress response of the caregiving staff who suffered from the earthquake. During the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake, 172 caregiving staff suffered during this experience. The authors of this paper gave written questionnaires to these caregiving staff one month after the earthquake. According to the data analysis, the staff felt uncomfortable when they could not provide proper care for their patients because of a lack of water, and they were anxious and felt uneasy about whether they could protect their patients when there were aftershocks. Regarding their own daily life, they felt it difficult to maintain sufficient food and water, frustration about not having household belongings because such things were broken or destroyed, and difficulty finding a place to sleep. Those who experienced these hardships throughout the disaster had higher acute stress response levels and their stress response a month later became more serious.
