| dc.description.abstract | SL Army has established Search and Rescue
teams (SAR teams) in all 25 districts. The objective
of the study was to describe the knowledge,
attitudes and practices of SAR teams of the SL
Army involved in search and rescue operations
following disasters. A descriptive cross-sectional
study was carried out from October to December
2017.Five platoons each were selected randomly
from high and medium risk district categories. All
5 platoons were selected from low risk category.
The total sample size was 465. A pre-tested selfadministered
questionnaire was employed. The
median age was 28 years. 3.2% were officers and
96.8% were soldiers, 80.4% educated up to G.C.E.
O/L, 52.9% of the population had undergone
SAR training during past three years in Sri Lanka
and none had undergone training outside the
country. Overall knowledge regarding search and
rescue seem to be good, that is >75 percentage
score, 57.2%. 93.8% has desirable positive
attitudes. 73.5% had participated in search and
rescue operation as response to disasters. Overall
practices seemed to be poor, that is <75 percentage
score in 71.3% of the population. A statistically
significant association was observed with level of
education (p= 0.001), and designation (p= 0.004)
and knowledge on search and rescue. Level of
education, designation and SAR training had no
significant association with attitudes on search
and rescue. A statistically significant association
was observed with designation (p= 0.021) and
practices. Practices regarding search and rescue
as response to disasters should be incorporated
into the basic training programme for officers and
soldiers. | en_US |
