Farid Ghaffari, Seyed Amir Hosein Pishgooie, Armin Zareiyan, Simintaj Sharififar, Somayeh Azarmi,
Volume 19, Issue 3 (9-2025)
Background and Aim: CBRN incidents Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear are often unpredictable and invisible, leading to fear, anxiety, and disruptions in the provision of healthcare services in the community. The potential consequences and costs of unpreparedness for CBRN incidents can be significant. Rapid and appropriate responses to CBRN incidents play a crucial role in mitigating adverse physical health effects and reducing mortality rates. These factors heavily depend on the preparedness of hospital emergency staff. This study aimed to explore the experiences of hospital emergency clinical staff regarding their preparedness for responding to CBRN incidents in 2024 in Tehran.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a qualitative research employing a conventional content analysis approach. The study population consisted of clinical emergency staff from four hospitals, including one educational-specialized hospital, two public-general hospitals, and one private-general hospital. Participants were selected purposively and through snowball sampling, ensuring maximum variation among clinical emergency staff of hospitals in Tehran Province. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 participants, and sampling continued until data saturation was achieved. For data analysis, the qualitative approach proposed by Graneheim and Lundman was employed, and MAXQDA software version 2022 was used for qualitative data management.
Results: In this study, 13 hospital emergency clinical staff members, including nurses, nursing managers, physicians, and laboratory science experts (8 males and 5 females), with an average work experience of 13 years and 11 months, were interviewed. Findings were extracted in the form of 7 main categories (resources, training and practice, contamination control, coordination, planning and instructions, management and treatment of casualties, structure), 13 subcategories, and 35 semantic codes. The results showed that the lack of specialized training, the absence of appropriate infrastructure for decontamination, and weak intra- and extra-departmental coordination are among the most important challenges to the preparedness of emergency staff in dealing with CBRN incidents. Participants also emphasized the need to provide personal protective equipment, develop specific instructions, and hold periodic drills.
Conclusion: Currently, the level of preparedness of hospital emergency clinical staff in responding to CBRN incidents is limited. Emergency staff play a vital role in responding to CBRN incidents. To ensure their preparedness and response efforts are fully effective, and considering the rising global threats of CBRN incidents, it is recommended to adopt strategies, policies, programs, coordination efforts, funding, and other necessary measures to enhance the preparedness of emergency staff for CBRN incidents.
