title: Health care workers' ability and willingness to report to work during public health emergencies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We conducted a county-wide survey to assess the ability and willingness of health care workers to report to work during a pandemic influenza and a severe earthquake and to identify barriers and strategies that would help them report to work.
  
  
  METHODS
  A stratified random sample of 9211 health care workers was selected from the Washington state licensure database and from health care agencies. We assessed correlates between self-reported ability and willingness to report to work and demographic and employer-related variables under two scenarios, influenza pandemic and a severe earthquake.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the influenza pandemic scenario, 95% of respondents reported that they would be able and 89% reported that they would be willing to report to their usual place of work. Seventy-four percent of respondents reported that they would be able and 88% would be willing to report to their usual place of work following a severe earthquake. The most frequently cited strategies that would help respondents report to work during an influenza pandemic were the availability of anti-viral influenza treatment and the ability to work from home. For persons with children at home, the strategy to increase ability to report to work during an earthquake was the availability of child care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of the King County health care workforce is willing and able to respond to an influenza pandemic or a severe earthquake.
authors.affiliation: Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, University of Washington, Seattle,WA98195, USA. stergach@uw.edu
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stergachis
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garberson
authors.forename: Onora
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.forename: Luann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: D'Ambrosio
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sangaré
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dold
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods; D055866:Earthquakes; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016272:Occupational Health; D016017:Odds Ratio; D058873:Pandemics / Q000517:prevention & control; D015980:Public Health Practice; D012066:Relief Work; D057566:Self Report; D014861:Washington; D000078329:Workforce