Assessment of healthcare professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Determining the healthcare professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic will contribute to managing and struggling their efforts against COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the perceptions and attitudes of healthcare professionals who are at the forefront in the fight against this pandemic. METHODS: In the study, the survey technique used as the data collection method and 216 participants agreed to participate. The questionnaire consisted of three sections. Reliability analysis and descriptive statistical methods used to analyze the data obtained using the SPSS package program. RESULTS: According to the study results, 80.4%of the participants perceive the probability of being infected with the COVID-19 to be very high, and 64%of them consider that the conditions are very favorable for them to be infected. More than half of them are afraid of being infected and believe that if they contract COVID-19, adverse effects may continue for a long time. Furthermore, almost all participants (96.20%) consider personal protective equipment beneficial and will protect them from the COVID-19 as a wise preventive measure. However, 82.30%of the participants stated that using personal protective equipment is uncomfortable, and 76.60%said it is challenging to take care of patients while using personal protective equipment. CONCLUSIONS: The current study results show that healthcare professionals are aware of how serious COVID-19 is, understand the importance of protective equipment in protection from COVID-19, and are seriously afraid of COVID-19. Given that the fears of healthcare professionals may have adverse effects on them, it is recommended that healthcare administrators take measures to comfort healthcare workers and ensure that they maintain their positive attitude towards COVID-19.

Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals on COVID-19 in Lesotho: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Healthcare professionals generally had positive views about the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in line with Bhagavathula et al [11] who reported positive perceptions on COVID-19 amongst healthcare workers in Iran and in contrast to a study by Turktemiz et al [12] who reported negative perceptions about COVID-19 amongst the study sample.…”

“…This shows positive views towards understanding that the disease can affect anyone, therefore, precautions remain paramount to prevent infection. This is in line with a study by Turktemiz et al [12] who reported that healthcare professionals considered that they would be infected by COVID-19. Wang et al [13] reported that it was a normal consequence that health care professionals believed they would be infected as they were in contact with infected patients.…”

The relationships between knowledge levels, health-protective practices, and anxiety in nurses in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Because nurses have been at the forefront of the struggle against this infectious disease, they have faced a higher risk of infection compared to the general population [7]. Moreover, the insufficient level of knowledge of healthcare professionals about COVID-19, misperceptions, and attitudes towards COVID-19 in the early period may also have caused delayed diagnoses, failure to effectively control the infection, and the spread of the disease (8). Additionally, the rapid increase in cases and deaths, as well as uncertainties about treatment and vaccination complicated efforts to prevent the spread of the disease initially and increased the anxiety of nurses due to workplace risks [3,4,7].…”

“…This fear often facilitates the development of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and disappointment [9]. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress during the pandemic concluded that almost one-third of nurses had developed depression, anxiety, and stress [8,9]. As of 2020, there were 198,465 nurses working across Turkey's 81 provinces [14].…”

“…The second part assessed the participants' knowledge of COVID-19, and behavioral changes in their nursing practices, work, and social lives using the COVID-19 Knowledge Scale, which was created by the researchers after reviewing the relevant literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. This part included questions about COVID-19 symptoms, incubation time, modes of transmission, effective protection methods, at-risk groups, and treatment methods.…”