Instructional Programs Influencing the Enhancement of the Knowledge Required by Volunteers in Disasters: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: To determine the instructional programs required by volunteers based on the studies carried out worldwide. Methods: A systematic search was carried out by PubMed, Cochran Library, Scopus, EMBASE, Science Direct, Web of Science and ProQuest databases between January 1970 and the end of June 2019. The articles were selected based on the keywords chosen by the author. In the end, the volunteer’s instructional titles were extracted from the articles in disasters. Results: Eleven articles were chosen for final analysis after studying the titles, abstracts, and complete articles texts which 45 instructional titles were extracted. The most frequent scales in terms of repetition were ethics, kinds of exercises, personal protection instruments, general hygiene, awareness of certain disasters, accident command system, disaster triage and emergency planning. Conclusion: Governments should offer programs that can best serve the improvement of their performance by considering the daily increasing growth in the number of volunteers and in natural and manmade disasters. Universities and schools play determinant roles in this regard. It is hoped that the present study findings can be effective in codify an efficient instructional program for elevating the performance of the volunteers by taking part in disasters response.

Keywords

• volunteers
• disaster
• planning
• awareness
• knowledge