To identify stakeholders’ perceptions of the role of the nurse educator in Hospital Disaster Management (HDM), determine the core competencies required for their effective participation, and establish training areas to enhance their participation during disasters.

A qualitative hermeneutic-phenomenological design was adopted with 38 stakeholders comprising doctors, clinical nurses, nurse administrators, and nurse educators in tertiary hospitals and nursing colleges in Kerala, India. The responses were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 respondents and focus group discussions with 4 different groups in December 2023.

Themes identified included preparedness gaps, underuse of secondary stakeholders, training and coordination capabilities, training needs, fear of clinical competence and safety, role confusion, elitism, and social responsibility, totaling 7 themes. Participants identified roles, preparedness, variable clinical exposure, and the necessity of planned competency development as unsatisfactory. The nurse educators were able to contribute to training, supervision, documentation, and psychosocial support, provided they are well prepared.

Nurse educators can be of great help to HDM, but are not being used to their full potential due to unclear role expectations and limited readiness. Their competencies can be enhanced and incorporated into institutional disaster plans to build surge capacity and improve coordination in hospital disaster responses.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Hospital Disaster Management (HDM) Skill Training Program (STP), focusing on the learning and behavior of nurse educators.

The study design was a randomized control trial with a pre-test and post-test control group with blinding of the outcome assessor. The sample includes nurse educators in selected collegiate nursing institutions, with 30 participants in the experimental and control groups. The training was delivered in a hybrid mode, and participants were randomly assigned to groups. The training was validated using the Delphi technique. Learning was assessed using a questionnaire measuring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the experimental and control groups.

The STP on HDM significantly improved the experimental group’s knowledge (t value = 4.581, P = 0.001), Skill (t value = 3.136, P = 0.003), Attitude (t value = 2.093, P = 0.003), and Behavior (t value = 9.34, P = 0.001).

HDM is a global necessity, and the study highlights the effectiveness of the STP on HDM, underscoring the importance of equipping health care professionals, especially nurses, with essential disaster management skills.