Mapping a postgraduate curriculum in disaster nursing with the International Council of Nursing's Core Competencies in Disaster Nursing V2.0: The extent of the program in addressing the core competencies

The increasing frequency and magnitude of disasters call for enhancing the preparation of nurses with advanced knowledge and skills in disaster management. With the release in December 2019 of the updated version 2.0 of the ICN's Core Competencies in Disaster Nursing (ICN CCDN V2.0), the aims of this study were to examine the extent to which the selected disaster nursing postgraduate program curriculum and the dissertation projects address the updated core competencies and to determine whether the syllabus requires revision. A data mapping analysis approach was used to review the syllabus of the studied program for coverage of the ICN V2.0 core competencies for general professional (Level I) and advanced/specialized nurses (Level II). The dissertation projects of the students were also included in the mapping analysis. It found that 83% of the core competencies were addressed at Level I for general professional nurses and 69% at Level II for advanced/specialized nurses in the curriculum. Out of the 35 core competencies at Level I under the eight domains, six items (17.1%) were not covered under the domains of Intervention and Recovery. Out of the 32 core competencies at Level II, ten items (31.3%) were not covered under the domains of Communication, Incident Management, Safety and Security, Assessment, Intervention, and Law and Ethics. Students' dissertations could complement some of the competencies not covered in the syllabus. The studied curriculum covered the majority of the core competencies proposed by ICN CCDN V2.0, but subjects were required to be revised to address the competencies missing from the syllabus. Moreover, it is critically important for educators to review their curriculum to prepare nurses for disasters, to ensure that they are equipped with the competencies required to meet the demands arising from the increasingly frequent occurrences of global disaster.