Healthcare workers’ knowledge, attitude and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic response in a tertiary care hospital of Nepal

  1. Dil K. Limbu
  2. Rano M. Piryani
  3. Avinash K. Sunny

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Abstract

COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic, for which appropriate infection prevention and control measures need to be adopted. Healthcare workers’ adherence to prevention and control measures is affected by their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19. In this study, we assessed the KAP among healthcare workers towards the COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic.

Method

A self-developed piloted KAP questionnaire was administered to the recruited healthcare workers involved in the COVID-19 response at the Universal College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UCMSTH), in Bhairahawa, Nepal. The knowledge questionnaire consisted of questions regarding the clinical characteristics, prevention, and management of COVID-19. Assessment on attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 included questions on behaviour and change in practices made towards COVID-19 response. Knowledge scores were calculated and compared by demographic characteristics and their attitude and practices towards COVID-19. Data were analysed using bivariate statistics.

Results

A total of 103 healthcare workers participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 28.24±6.11 years (range: 20–56); 60.2% were females; 61.2% were unmarried; 60.2% had a medical degree, and 39.8% were the nursing staff. The mean knowledge score was 10.59±1.12 (range: 7–13), and it did not vary significantly when adjusted for demographic characteristics. The attitude was positive for 53.4% of the participants with a mean knowledge score of 10.35±1.19 and negative for 46.6% participants with a mean knowledge score of 10.88±0.98 (p = 0.02). The practice was good (≥3 score) for 81.5% participants with a mean knowledge score of 10.73±1.12 and poor for 18.5% participants with a mean knowledge score of 10.46±1.13 (p = 0.24). The attitude of the participants improved with increasing age (29.55±7.17, p = 0.02).

Conclusion

There is comparably better knowledge regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers. Appropriate practice correlates with better knowledge and positive attitude towards COVID-19 infection is seen with increasing age. Hence, training on protection and protective measures for having a positive attitude among healthcare workers is necessary against the fight with COVID-19 infection.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.19.20177998: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIACUC: Ethical approval: Ethical clearance was obtained from Institutional Review Committee (IRC) of Universal College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UCMSTH).
    Consent: Informed written consent was taken from the participant before inclusion in the study and confidentiality was maintained.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableStudy variables: Demographic variables include age as continuous variable; gender as male and female; marital status married and unmarried; education as certificate level with Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) Nursing and Community Medical Assistant (

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The entered data were exported into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for analysis.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  2. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0242126
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.19.20177998v1 on medRxiv