Aim: Disaster risk-reduction literacy is a relatively new concept in disaster research. Only within the last decade have researchers initiated reviewing the disaster prevention and reduction literacy, and identified its effects on an individual’s ability to comprehend the nature of and make decisions in the event of a disaster.

Methods: This paper reviews and analyses the concept of literacy for disaster risk reduction.

Results: The defining attributes of disaster risk-reduction literacy are awareness, knowledge, and techniques, which will aid survivors to reduce risks arising from disaster, and make quick decisions about reducing risks. Antecedents to the disaster risk-reduction literacy rate are personal characteristics and regional characteristics.

Conclusion: One of the effects of a higher disaster risk-reduction literacy must be improved decision-making during a disaster. Disaster risk-reduction literacy empowers people to act appropriately. This review will benefit people by enhancing their role in assessing the community peoples’ needs for disaster reduction more accurately.

Aim: Emergency department (ED) nurses are among the first professionals to provide care for people affected by a terror attack. Given the ever-present threat of terror attacks, as evidenced by an upward trend in incidents worldwide, this review is highly topical. The aim of this review is to explore ED nurses’ perceptions and experiences in responding to a terror attack, identified in current, published literature.

Methods: This is an integrative literature review. A search of electronic databases was conducted in November 2014. Eleven articles (n = 11) met the criteria for review.

Results: Thematic analysis was applied and seven themes emerged from the review: i) training; ii) disaster plans; iii) anticipating the arrival of patients; iv) willingness to respond; v) safety; vi) caring for people affected by terror attack; and vii) psychological effect.

Conclusion: Terror attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) threats in particular emerged as a strong focus; present throughout most of the themes. The key findings to emerge from the review demonstrate that more focus needs to be placed on appropriate preparedness of emergency department nurses in order to mitigate negative long-term effects of responding to terror attacks.

Aim: Public health nurses (PHNs) provide services to residents during disasters. Understanding PHNs’ experiences in affected areas could redefine PHNs’ roles in public health at a community level and provide valuable suggestions to local government organizations for future mass casualty events. This study aimed to reveal the experiences of local government PHNs working in a rural affected area after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Methods: An ethnographic approach was used. Data collected from semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and statistical documents, yielded in-depth information regarding the experiences of seven PHNs who were survivors and continued working after the disaster.

Results: Three themes were identified; namely, “a local PHN rooted in our town,” “carrying out responsibilities after confirming the family’s safety,” and “being ‘a survivor’ while also not forgetting their roles as ‘a local PHN rooted in our town.’” PHNs who were not at their workplaces during the disaster felt guilty about being unable to help in the same manner as their colleagues. Information about the safety of their families enabled the PHNs to perform under pressure. Moreover, they could not forget their responsibilities, even though they were also survivors.

Conclusion: The experiences of PHNs in the affected areas are important in order to understand the combination of being a professional, a family member, and a survivor, all at once. It is crucial to elicit PHNs’ feelings through self-disclosure, so that they can receive appropriate support (based on gender and their individual situation) from relief personnel.

Aim: The primary aim of this pilot study was to explore perceptions of disaster nursing and disaster preparedness among Australian nursing undergraduates, including their definitions of disaster, disaster nursing and disaster preparedness. The study also aimed to gain an increased understanding of what Australian nursing undergraduates might see as their role in disaster situations. A naturalistic, qualitative approach was selected for this study. An exploratory, instrumental single case study design was determined to be the most effective research methodology for exploring this issue.

Methods: Data collection occurred via focus groups from a purposive, homogenous segmented sample. Participants were enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing (pre-registration) at a School of Nursing and Midwifery at an Adelaide University. The data were thematically analysed.

Results: Four main themes were identified; ‘ideology of disaster’, ‘what is disaster nursing’, ‘what is disaster preparedness’ and ‘do nursing undergraduates have a role to play in disaster response?’

Conclusions: Three recommendations are made. The first is to increase nursing undergraduates’ knowledge of disaster nursing and disaster preparedness as part of their Bachelor of Nursing (BN) degree. The second is the establishment of agreements between schools of nursing and community organisations to facilitate nursing undergraduates’ engagement in the disaster response space. The third suggests ways to link nursing undergraduates with volunteer opportunities in order to increase their understanding of disaster preparedness and planning. This study found that the nursing undergraduates were not prepared to respond in a disaster setting, which may compromise their ability to respond should the need arise.

Aim: In Japan, the ravaging magnitude of storms and floods have recently been taking place. The scope and impact of rainstorm and flood disasters occurring in Japan in 2013, and the role played by public health nurses (PHN), is presented.

Methods: A documentary study was conducted using a descriptive approach for a 1-year period (2013).

Results: In total, 22 published articles and reports were considered for the literature review. Rainstorm, mudslide and flood disasters caused 61 deaths, and 350 cases of injury were reported; and more than 580,000 people were ordered to evacuate. Rainstorm and the subsequent mudslide and flood destroyed 3,972 houses, and 27,080 other residences were flooded; they also destroyed tons of crops in farm lands, costing approximately 2 billion Yen. The role of PHNs consisted mainly of the monitoring of evacuees, caring for those with chronic conditions, and providing health consultation and mental health support to the evacuees as well as the community members. PHNs also conducted health surveys and implemented health promotion activities.

Conclusion: This study showed that the impact of rainstorm and flood disasters was considerable in terms of human and environmental impacts. It also highlighted the main activities undertaken by PHNs in affected areas, suggesting that the contribution of nurses as members of disaster relief teams is of utmost importance.

　The brutality of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks has placed a laser focus on the health impact of increasing global instability. Climate change, disaster, human conflict and war are changing our environment. Members of our profession recognize that nurses are critical to the protection of human health following disasters, large-scale public health emergencies (PHEs) and terrorist events. Despite this irrefutable fact and repeated calls for advancing nurse preparedness and disaster nursing science, many nurses across the world do not possess the knowledge, skills and abilities that they will need to be able to participate in a timely and appropriate manner during a disaster response. This lack of preparedness has significant implications for the ability of global healthcare systems to mount effective response and recovery initiatives. From Europe, Africa, and the Americas, across Australia and the countries of the Pacific Rim, the need for global nursing collaboration to advance nurse readiness has never been greater. The purpose of this paper is to describe the growing risk to human health created by naturally occurring and human-caused disasters, the resultant demand for healthcare services in the midst of a global shortage in the healthcare workforce, and the need for greater international collaboration in preparing nurses to respond to disaster events. Strategic efforts to prepare a global nursing workforce for disaster and public health emergency response can contribute to improvement in quality of care rendered, protection of the safety of nurses, victims and their families, and can ultimately contribute to improved population-based health outcomes.