title: Issues affecting health professionals during and after catastrophic earthquakes in Van-Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess physical and psycho-social problems faced by health professionals, and to analyse the ethical, legal and triage dimensions of disaster medical services.
  
  
  METHODS
  The descriptive study was conducted from November 2011 to March 2012 and comprised health professionals from two hospitals of Van, Turkey A specific questionnaire was designed and interviews were conducted face to face. SPSS 13 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 430 health professionals who had experienced one or more earthquakes and were part of the study, 225(52.3%) were nurses and 205(47.7%) were doctors. There were 224(52%) women and 206(48%) men. Besides, 206(48) were below 31 years of age. Overall, 193(44.9%) participants experienced chaos, 83(19.3%) panic and fear, and 129(30%) despair. Only 20(4.7%) of them lived at home, while others lived in tents, containers, hospitals or cars during the emergency and continued to provide services despite social, economic and psychological problems. Triage was preferred by 339(78.8%) of the respondents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Problems of health professionals were multi-dimensional and addressing them would make service delivery more effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical History and Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sukran
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sevimli
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sevdegul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karadas
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet Cumhur
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Dulger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D055866:Earthquakes; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D058996:Quality Improvement; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014218:Triage / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014421:Turkey
keywords: Earthquake, Health professionals, Triage, Ethics.