A learning project was launched to prepare for natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Competencies were developed for clinical nurses in the Initial phase of disasters as an indicator to build a bridge between daily training and actions during crises. There are two predominant features of the competencies that differ from other works. First was to concentrate only on “the initial phase” of a crisis outbreak. The second was to associate each competence with services and roles of clinical nurses.

The development has been conducted in accordance with the ibstpi® competency development model. First, 50 outlining competencies from earlier studies were selected, like ICN Framework and Disaster Nursing Core Competency for undergraduates in Japan. Then a web-based questionnaire was carried out with a four-point scale of “able,” “probable,” “impossible,” and “cannot understand meaning” for incumbent nurses in order to gauge their adequacy.

There were 86 responses with an average of 14 years (1-40) of nursing experience. We compared them in three groups; those with a job post (G1), those with experience of longer than five years (G2), and those with experience of fewer than five years (G3). The average competency score (total 150 points) was 96.7 (67-129) in G1, 88.2 (53-145) in G2 and 80.2 (59-114) in G3.

The results imply, even in G1, the average score is low at 65/100 points. This may indicate most clinical nurses should make efforts to develop their skills and knowledge of disaster nursing through daily work. Only 32 competencies (G1), 14 (G2), and 5 (G3) were marked as “able” or “probable” by over 80% of responders. Thus with consideration, depending on the result and expert reviews, the competencies determined to be “required” for clinical nurses were finally refined down to 35 items including the premise of ten.