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Household Preparedness and Perceptions of Workforce Preparedness During Pandemics: A Health Care Employee Survey at the US Department of Veterans Affairs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2021

Claudia Der-Martirosian ,
Michelle D. Balut Open the ORCID record for Michelle D. Balut [Opens in a new window]  and
Aram Dobalian
Claudia Der-Martirosian*
Affiliation:
Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), US Department of Veterans Affairs, North Hills, CA, USA
Michelle D. Balut
Affiliation:
Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), US Department of Veterans Affairs, North Hills, CA, USA
Aram Dobalian
Affiliation:
Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), US Department of Veterans Affairs, North Hills, CA, USA Division of Health Systems Management and Policy, University of Memphis School of Public Health, Memphis, TN, USA
*
Corresponding Author: Claudia Der-Martirosian, Email: claudia.der-martirosian@va.gov.
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Abstract

Objective:

To examine the effects of household preparedness on perceptions of workplace preparedness during a pandemic among all employees at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities.

Methods:

The VA Preparedness Survey (October–December 2018, Los Angeles, CA) used a stratified simple random, web-based survey. Multivariate statistical analyses examined the effect of household preparedness on perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic: institutional readiness; desire for additional training; and understanding their role and its importance.

Results:

VA employees totaling 4026 participated. For a pandemic, 55% were confident in their VA medical facility’s ability to respond, 63% would like additional training, 49% understood their role during a response, and 68% reported their role as important. Only 23% reported being “well prepared” at home during major disasters. After controlling for study-relevant factors, household preparedness was positively associated with perceptions of workforce preparedness during a pandemic.

Conclusions:

Efforts to increase household preparedness for health care employees could bolster workforce preparedness during pandemics. Organizations should consider robust policies and strategies, such as flexible work arrangements, in order to mitigate factors that may serve as barriers to household preparedness.

Keywords

health care workerhousehold preparednesspandemicsUS Department of Veterans Affairsworkforce preparedness
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , October 2022 , pp. 1953 - 1958
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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