*3.2. Questionnaire*

This study used the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ) to assess the disaster preparedness of nurses [18]. EPIQ contains a variety of topical areas, of which two are relevant for the present study, i.e., (1) the 10 specific competency dimensions related to preparedness in the case of large-scale emergency events and (2) self-assessed familiarity across these competency areas. EPIQ is the only reliable and validated tool in the literature that evaluates nurses' perceived familiarity of emergency preparedness and disaster response core competencies. It uses familiarity as an important measure of the acquisition of new information. Wisniewski et al. developed EPIQ by performing an extensive search in the literature, combined with nurses' perceptions of perceived familiarity with these capabilities. They also sought to determine preferred education methods and demographics for future educational endeavours. EPIQ has been validated by psychometric testing and used in several studies aiming to measure levels of disaster preparedness and provides a comprehensive analysis of the topic of study since it covers broad areas [19,20]. It works to individually assess all areas of healthcare and delves into in-depth information relevant to the research. Additionally, it is simple to read and interpret and provides a user-friendly interface.

EPIQ consists of 51 items divided into two parts: the first six questions relate to demographic and individual information. Secondly, 45 knowledge-based questions are distributed among the 10 emergency preparedness competency dimensions, which are (1) Emergency Preparedness Terms and Activities, (2) Incident Command System (ICS) and own role within it, (3) Ethical Issues in Triage, (4) Epidemiology and Surveillance, (5) Isolation/Quarantine, (6) Decontamination, (7) Communication/Connectivity, (8) Psychological Issues, (9) Special Populations, and (10) Accessing Critical Resources (Appendix A).
