To identify attitudes and understanding of Chinese undergraduate nursing students towards disaster, therefore providing information for the development of a disaster nursing curriculum in the Chinese context.

A total 214 undergraduate nursing students (Year 1 to 4) in one medical university in China were surveyed in 2010.

The majority of undergraduate nursing students (94.9%) were concerned about disaster, 46.7% of them thought they were very knowledgeable about disaster, while 39.3% of them stated they were moderately knowledgeable about disaster. The most popular way for the students to get information about disaster was television (88.3%), followed by internet (67.8%) and newspaper (45.8%). Only 33.6% of them said they gained information from the university. Earthquake (93.7% of students) and flood (36.1% of students) were mentioned by the students as examples of disasters that have occurred in China. The majority of students said the Wenchuan earthquake (2008) was the disaster that had the greatest impression on them. Five aspects were identified from their description of disaster, which included the cause, category, characteristic, impact and type of disaster. 36.4% of students were certain that disaster would happen again in China. A further 50.9% felt disaster was likely. Flood and earthquake were considered the most likely future disasters. 71% of nursing students strongly agreed that being prepared for disaster was important. The main reasons were better preparedness could decrease the damage to property and the incidence of death and injury. However, the level of understanding of the effects of disaster and the exposure of students to education about disaster health response was limited.

Knowledge and skills for disaster preparedness of nursing students should be strengthened in the medical university.