Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards Covid-19 among Nigerian healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic: A single centre survey

• Published in: Nigerian journal of clinical practice Vol. 24; no. 12; pp. 1846 - 1851
• Main Authors: Abene, E, Ocheke, A, Ozoilo, K, Gimba, Z, Okeke, E, Agbaji, O, Agaba, E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01-12-2021; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Clinical competence; COVID-19; Epidemics; Health attitudes; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Personnel; Humans; Medical personnel; Nigeria; Pandemics - prevention & control; Psychological aspects; SARS-CoV-2; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Nigeria; COVID-19; Coronavirus; pandemic; physical distancing; healthcare workers; knowledge
• ISSN: 1119-3077
• DOI: 10.4103/njcp.njcp_365_20

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Aims: Being a novel viral disease, we sought to evaluate the knowledge and practice of doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital regarding the disease. Subjects and Methods: Using a self-administered questionnaire, respondents were asked questions on the cause, clinical features, and prevention of COVID-19. Results: We studied 409 respondents (238 doctors and 171 nurses) with a mean age of 34 ± 7 years and a median length of experience of five (IQR 2-9) years. The mean knowledge score was 9.6 ± 1.2 out of a maximum of 12 points with 337 (82.4%) respondents having good knowledge. The majority of respondents (62.8%) had not been trained on infection prevention and control since the outbreak of the pandemic. Only 95 (23.2%) had seen COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) displayed in the hospital. The use of the personal protective equipment (PPE) kit comprising the N-95 mask, face shield, gown, and shoes was seen by 194 (47.4%) respondents in recent times. A total of 397 (97.0%) respondents felt they were at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 relative to the general populace. Measures taken to prevent COVID-19 included: wearing of face mask (68.7%), hand gloves (78.2%), frequent use of hand sanitizers (84.1%), frequent hand washing (84.8%), the daily wash of uniforms and ward coats (44.5%), daily cleaning of footwear (31.7%), and avoidance of taking home clothing and footwear worn in the hospital (54.2%). Conclusion: Despite having good knowledge of transmission and clinical features of SARS-CoV 2, the utilization of protective measures by HCW in this study is unsatisfactory.