en عمومى General پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span style="line-height:2;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span sans-serif=""><span style="color:black"><strong>Background</strong>: It is necessary to prepare nurses for their important and accountable roles in disaster response teams. Given the lack of in-service training courses, nurses&rsquo; knowledge and skills in responding to disasters are lower than the desired level. This status can lead to nurses&rsquo; poor performance in caring for victims of disasters. This study aims to determine the effects of empowerment programs on nurses&rsquo; competence in disaster response.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods</strong>: A total of 70 nurses working in Ardal and Naghan hospitals in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran, in 2020 were selected via a sampling method. One hospital was randomly selected as the intervention and the other as the control. The members of the intervention group were divided into 5 groups. Educational sessions were held in four 2-h sessions in one month. In addition, the intervention consisted of a 2-day workshop, hanging posters, and pamphlets that covered topics of competencies in disaster nursing.<br> <strong>Results</strong>: The results showed that the mean score of nurses&rsquo; competence score significantly increased in the intervention group (P=0.001); however, no significant difference was observed in the control group (P>0.05). Additionally, significant improvements were observed in all dimensions of competencies in the experimental group. The Mean&plusmn;SD scores of the increase in different domains of nurses&rsquo; competencies were as follows: management, 16&plusmn;4.6; ethical competency, 12&plusmn;2.8; personal competency, 18&plusmn;8.6; and technical competency, 30&plusmn;9.3.&nbsp;<br> <strong>Conclusion</strong>: According to other study results with the same scale in Iran, nurses&rsquo; competencies in disaster response are not desirable; therefore, it is recommended that nurses, administrators, and other members of the healthcare system use these results to improve nurses&rsquo; competencies through in-service training.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:150%"><span style="tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt"><span sans-serif="" style="font-family:Calibri,"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:150%"><span style="color:black"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> Empowerment, Professional competence, Nurse, Disasters 87 94 http://hdq.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-143-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Fatemeh Aliakbari aliakbarifa@gmail.com 0000-0002-4416-9786 No Community-oriented Nursing Midwifery Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran. Tahereh Pirani piranit@gmail.com No School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran. Mohammad Heidari heidari@skums.ac.ir 0000-0001-7767-5645 Yes Community-oriented Nursing Midwifery Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran. Soleiman Kheiri Kheiri.sol@gmail.com No Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health Modeling in Health Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.