Bird’s-eye View of Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness Among Emergency Physicians in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has exemplified the crucial role played by emergency physicians on the frontlines, by triaging, quarantining and treating myriad patients in time. Despite this, there exists a dearth of literature comprehensively assessing the knowledge and awareness of these healthcare workers on the disease in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of emergency physicians in the Kingdom of Bahrain towards COVID-19. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included 142 emergency physicians of three major hospitals in Bahrain. A self-designed questionnaire divided into 4 parts which comprised of demographics, knowledge, attitude and practices towards COVID-19 were completed by the emergency physicians working in these hospitals. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, Chi-square test, and multiple linear regression were employed to evaluate KAP scores. Results: The mean COVID-19 knowledge and practice score was 26.29 for a maximum score of 32 suggesting an overall 82.15% correct rate on the knowledge and practice test. Multiple linear regression analysis highlighted age (p=0.038), genders (p=0.033), marital status (p=0.021), organization (p=0.032), having children (p=0.008), and continuing professional development (CPD) activity (p=0.0001) as significant predictors for knowledge and practice scores. The attitude towards the final success in controlling COVID-19 significantly differed across marital status (p=0.021), organization of participants (p=0.020) and position of participants (p=0.012) respectively.Conclusion: Good knowledge, positive attitude and sufficient safe practice towards COVID-19 were observed in majority of the participants. These findings can foster development of nuanced and salient health management strategies that augment KAP so that proper control and elimination of the disease can be achieved, while prioritizing patient health and satisfaction.