The Impact Of Health Care Worker’s Knowledge And Attitude On Their COVID-19 Infection Risk

Abstract

Background: High number of losses may occur among health care workers (HCWs) who are the key contributors in the COVID-19 battle. Objectives: To explore the baseline knowledge and perception of HCWs who will join working in our isolation unit, correct the wrong believes and investigate their safety at the end of their quarantine period. Method: The study was implemented on 206 HCWs [133 nurses, 28 physicians, 8 pharmacists, and 37 technicians and housekeepers] by assessing HCWʼs knowledge and attitude via on-line questionnaire, improve misconceptions via health care program prior to start their work in the unit and inspect the COVID-19 infection by laboratory and radiological investigations. The inclusion criteria were being HCWs in the isolation unit of COVID-19, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt for in the period from of June 10 th to August 10 th , 2020. Results: Base-line questionnaire results revealed good knowledge and positive attitude of HCWs towards 16-COVID-19 items in spite of ignoring the incubation period of the disease. There was significant positive attitude of the HCWs groups, and the total group attitude showed a significant good knowledge score. Health care workers had highly significant good knowledge score and positive attitude towards the importance of training on personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing. Continuous health education on infection control practices and importance of social distancing during the isolation period was emphasized. At the end of the quarantine period, the infection rate was 5.8%. The HCWs with positive SARS-CoV-2 showed negative COVID-Ab results, significant changes in their C-T scan findings and lab findings. Conclusion: Health care workers with good knowledge, perception and who follow strict precautions in an isolation unit are the basis of success in winning the battle against SARS-CoV aiming at keeping HCWs safety with optimum patient care and less harm to the health facilities.

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“…Although, our results somewhat disappointing in governmental sector, but in Libya, a study was conducted among HCWs working in emergency (ER), Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and infectious diseases departments in 21 hospitals, only about 13.4% of them reported that their hospital was prepared for COVID-19 pandemic (Elhadi et al, 2020), where only14.8% of all participants reported that they confidence and highly confidence in management of COVID-19 patients (Elhadi et al, 2020). In a study conducted in Menoufia University isolation unit, 206 HCWs, 91.7% of them were feel safe in their work environment against COVID-19, this is supported by a low infected rate among targeted HCWs (5.8%, 12 out of 206 HCWs was infected) (Ghonaim et al, 2021). Also, significant differences (P = 0.012) were noted between health care sectors in the participant's revelations about the readily accessible of supplies necessary to hand hygiene in department, with 100% of responses in the private sector compared to 94.4% in NGOs and 86.5% in governmental.…”

Relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice of COVID-19 precautionary measures and the frequency of infection among medical students at an Egyptian University

“…The sample size was calculated using NCSS PASS 11.0 and based on a study conducted by Ghonaim et al [ 11 ]. Group sample sizes of approximately 93 in Group One (previously infected group) and 93 in Group Two (no previous infection) could achieve 80% power to detect a difference between group proportions of −0.1610.…”

“…This study conducted an extensive literature review of articles that addressed the relationship between KAP related to COVID-19 precautionary measures and the frequency of infection among medical students and found no previous studies on this topic. Nevertheless, we found a study that explored the relationship between the KAP of healthcare workers and infection status, which was conducted by Ghonaim et al [ 11 ]. The study recruited 206 health care workers (from the COVID-19 isolation unit of the National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt, in the period from June 10 to August 10, 2020.…”