AIMS: This study aimed to explore the barriers and potentials in disaster nursing learning in undergraduate nursing study programmes in Indonesia. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative study. METHOD: The study was carried out from March 2019 to March 2020. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 54 participants, consisting of lecturers, students, disaster volunteers and members of emergency and disaster nursing associations. Data were collected through focus group discussions and analysed using thematic analysis to identify the main themes. RESULTS: There are three main barriers in disaster nursing learning, namely: (1) curriculum and competency standards are not uniform, (2) limited facilities and infrastructure and (3) limited understanding and readiness of lecturers. On the other hand, several strategic opportunities were also found, such as the (1) high frequency of disasters as a source of real learning, (2) synergy between educational institutions and professional associations and (3) student involvement in disaster activities through student activity units and independent campus programmes. CONCLUSION: The results of this study emphasize the need for developing a standardized disaster nursing curriculum, increasing the capacity of lecturers and integrating experience-based learning methods to improve the readiness of nursing students to deal with disaster situations effectively.
Emaliyawati et al. (Mon,) studied this question.