Introduction: On February 6, 2023, two major earthquakes occurred with the epicenter in Kahramanmaraş. The earthquakes severely affected eleven provinces in Türkiye and northern Syria, causing the death of tens of thousands of people and the collapse of hundreds of thousands of buildings. This study aimed to identify the problems encountered by search and rescue teams during the Kahramanmaraş earthquake and to develop strategic solutions to these problems. Methods: This exploratory-descriptive qualitative study was conducted with eight participants. The participants were selected through the snowball sampling method and were involved in the search and rescue operations during the disaster. Data were collected through in-depth structured interviews and field observations and analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. During the analysis, researchers cross-checked and discussed disagreements until a consensus was reached. Results: All participants were male, and the mean age was 44.50±7.58 (min= 29, max= 51). The duration of the participants’ work in the earthquake zone varied between 4-16 days. The study found that the difficulties encountered during search and rescue operations were grouped into seven themes: safety, chaos and confusion, human resources and management, meeting personal needs, communication, transportation, and emotional strain. It was found that these problems were generally serious in the first 24 hours, then partially improved and continued to decrease after 72 hours. Conclusion: Insufficient number of teams due to the large number of collapsed buildings, communication disruptions, and meeting personal needs are the main difficulties encountered during search and rescue operations. It is considered that the use of the experience and techniques of miners in search and rescue under rubble, the extension of incentive activities to increase the number of volunteer search and rescue teams, and the strengthening of the necessary studies for the accreditation of these teams can contribute to the solution of these problems.
Tayfur et al. (Sun,) studied this question.