According to the 2022 World Disaster Assessment Report, more than 300 natural disasters occurred worldwide in 2022, seriously affecting the safety of the lives and property of people around the world (UNDRR, 2023). China is a country with a large population and susceptible to frequent disasters. Data revealed that an alarming 112 million people were affected by disasters in China in 2022, making it one of the worst affected countries in the world (UNDRR, 2023). Disaster nursing refers to the systematic and flexible application of unique knowledge and skills related to disaster medical care by nursing staff in the event of a disaster, while cooperating with other professional fields to carry out tasks and reduce further hazard risks to public safety during disasters (Zhang et al., 2021). As the largest group of healthcare professionals (Li et al., 2023), nurses play multiple roles in disaster relief, including injury classification, physical and mental care, health education and information dissemination and have become an important force in disaster medical rescue (Hyerine et al., 2022). The level of competencies in disaster nursing of nurses will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of disaster relief efforts, holding significant implications for disaster response and post-disaster reconstruction (Ya et al., 2022).

To ensure the guidelines of the core competencies in disaster nursing keep pace with times, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) released the Core Competencies in Disaster Nursing Version 2.0 (CCDN V2.0) in 2019 (ICN, 2019). The CCDN V2.0 divided disaster nursing competencies into three levels: General Professional Nurses (Level I, 35 competencies), Advanced or Specialized Nurses (Level II, 33 competencies) and Advanced Nursing Practice - Specialist in Disasters (Level III, 39 competencies) (ICN, 2022). It requires all nurses to possess the Level I core competencies in disaster nursing.

New Graduate Nurses (NGNs) refer to those who are working in a clinical institution as a nurse within their first time after graduation (Ruishuang et al., 2020). In China, NGNs had completed a 2–3 year basic nursing education at school, followed by a 1-year clinical internship in hospital (Zheng et al., 2023). As the fresh blood of clinical nursing, when the disaster event occurs, NGNs are also required to be directly involved in disaster relief works just like any other clinical nurse (Tussing et al., 2022). Therefore, the level of competencies in disaster nursing of NGNs were also one of the important factors affecting the quality of disaster relief (Castner et al., 2021). Currently, despite many studies on the core competencies in disaster nursing of clinical nurses (Zhang and Zhang, 2023, Chegini et al., 2022, Murphy et al., 2021), there were few studies focusing on NGNs who have just graduated and started nursing work, leading to an insufficient understanding of the current situation and influencing factors of NGNs' core competencies in disaster nursing. However, few studies had focused on this particular group of NGNs who has just graduated and started nursing work, leading to a lack of understanding of the current situation and influencing factors of the core competencies in disaster nursing for NGNs.

As one of the most authoritative international guidelines of disaster nursing, the CCDN V2.0 provided significant guidance for nursing schools and clinical institution to develop the disaster nursing education (Loke et al., 2021; Xinyue et al., 2021)). Measuring the level of core competencies in disaster nursing of NGNs will be beneficial in assessing the disaster nursing education NGNs received during school and providing guidance for continuing education in clinical institutions. Thus, this study aimed to assess the core competencies in disaster nursing level of NGNs and explore its influencing factors under the guidance of CCDN V2.0, thereby providing specific guidance for nursing schools and clinical institution in developing or improving disaster nursing education programs.