a survey on the needs of rescue and relief teams in bam earthquake on deployed time

b a c k g r o u n d & aim: following the bam earthquake, relief teams and individual volunteers’influx in the scene. we conducted this survey to determine the needs and health status of relief workers when they were in the scene. methods  & materials:   this  was a concurrent  nested  mixed-method  survey  that  the qualitative nested   in  a  quantitative   approach.   interviews   were   through   an   open-ended   semi-structural questionnaire three weeks after bam earthquake. respondents were from the relief team who had been staying in bam at least for one week at the time of interview. r e s u lt s : we surveyed 235 relief workers and majority of them (75%) were in the scene since the1stor  2nd   week  of  earthquake.  twenty-eight  of  them  experienced  illness,  and  the  most  common complaint was respiratory track illness. one hundred eighty five of them (79%) expressed their need to a psychology consultation. the results of thematic analysis of qualitative phase of survey were about the 19 themes expressed by the subjects. c on c l u sio n :   the results of this study revealed  that all relief workers should be trained for self- protection.  preparing  the  basic  needs  by  him/her-self  may  maximize  the  performance  of  relief workers  in  disaster  regions.  the  study  method  design  applied  was  appropriate  for  the  similar situations.