Knowledge and Perception of Health Workers on Transmission and Prevention of Coronavirus
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to examine the attitude, knowledge and perception of health workers on transmission and prevention of COVID-19 by using health workers in the outpatient department of University College hospital Ibadan as a case study. However, the specific objectives are:
- To understand the attitude, knowledge and perception of health workers to the general public towards the prevention of COVID-19 in Oyo State
- To determine the strategies used by health workers in the State to stop the general spread COVID-19
- To study the effects of COVID-19 on the economic status of the world
- To establish the symptoms of COVID-19 and the steps to take when these symptoms occur.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview of Coronavirus
Coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated “COVID-19”) is an emerging respiratory disease that is caused by a novel coronavirus and was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The disease is highly infectious, and its main clinical symptoms include fever, dry cough, fatigue, myalgia, and dyspnea. In China, 18.5% of the patients with COVID-19 develop to the severe stage, which is characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, difficult-to-tackle metabolic acidosis, and bleeding and coagulation dysfunction (Utibe, 2019).
The first infected patient who had clinical manifestations such as fever, cough, and dyspnea was reported on 12 December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since then, 2019-nCoV has spread rapidly to other countries via different ways such as airline traveling and now, COVID-19 is the world’s pandemic problem (Felix, 2020).
Coronaviruses (CoV) infections are emerging respiratory viruses and known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (Yin et al., 2019). CoV is zoonotic pathogens that can be transmitted via animal-to-human and human-to-human. Multiple epidemic outbreaks occurred during 2002 (SARS) with ~800 deaths and 2012 (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: MERS-CoV) with 860 deaths (Lee, 2020). Approximately eight years after the MERS-CoV epidemic, the current outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China, has emerged as a global outbreak and significant public health issue. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Astonishingly, in the first week of March, a devastating number of new cases have been reported globally, emerging as a pandemic. As of 9 March 2020, more than 110,000 confirmed cases across 105 countries and more than 3800 deaths have been reported (Philemon et al., 2020).
The COVID-19 is spread by human-to-human through droplets, feco-oral, and direct contact, with an incubation period of 2-14 days. So far, no antiviral treatment or vaccine has been recommended explicitly for COVID-19. Therefore, applying the preventive measure to control COVID-19 infection is the utmost critical intervention. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are the primary section in contact with patients and are an important source of exposure to the infected cases in the healthcare settings, thus, expected to be at a high risk of infections. By the end of January, the WHO and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have published recommendations for the prevention and control of COVID-19 for HCWs. Indeed, the WHO also initiated several online training sessions and materials on COVID-19 in various languages to strengthen the preventive strategies, including raising awareness, and training HCWs preparedness activities (Wan, 2019). In several instances, misunderstandings of HCWs delayed controlling efforts to provide necessary treatment, implicate rapid spread of infection in hospitals, and also may put the patients’ lives at risk. In this regard, the COVID-19 epidemic offers a unique opportunity to investigate the level of knowledge, and perceptions of HCWs during this global health crisis. Besides, we also explored the role of different information sources in shaping HCWs knowledge and perceptions on COVID-19 during this peak period.
It seems that the current widespread outbreak has been partly associated with a delay in diagnosis and poor infection control procedures. As transmission within hospitals and protection of healthcare workers are important steps in the epidemic, the understanding or having enough information regarding sources, clinical manifestations, transmission routes, and prevention ways among healthcare workers can play roles for this gal assessment. Since nurses are in close contact with infected people, they are the main part of the infection transmission chain and their knowledge of 2019-nCoV prevention and protection procedures can help prevent the transmission chain. Iran is one of the most epidemic countries for COVID-19 and there is no information regarding the awareness and attitude of Iranian nurses about this infectious disease.
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The study identified a significant gap constituting the source of information, poor knowledge levels, and discrepancies in the perceptions about COVID-19 among our study participants. As the global threat of COVID-19 continues to emerge, greater efforts through educational campaigns that targeting HCWs and a wide reach population beyond the borders are urgently needed.
Despite the subsequent rapid spread of this virus worldwide, traditional public health measures were able to contain and control this outbreak. Because COVID-19 causes a nonspecific clinical illness, diagnosing and controlling this disease in the future will require the development of rapid accurate tests. There is an urgent need to develop means of performing clinical trials that evaluate treatment regimens for COVID-19, as well as other new diseases, especially in outbreak situations.
Implication to nursing
Overall, COVID-19 epidemics has placed a huge burden on the health care system, and mainly on nurses who have faced the biggest challenges and concerns in their nursing profession towards the unprecedently outbreak of coronavirus worldwide. This crisis has dramatically affected the nurses’ capacity sustained critical nursing care due to the lack of maintaining effective communication channels in times of unpredicted circumstances which the guidelines couldn’t help to fill. The human factor framework NHFC-COVID19 come to fill this gap and help develop the necessary tools, protocols and guidelines for a similar pandemic in the future. The National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC)-COVID19 shows that despite the lack of resources, and the lack of psychological and mental health support, still nurses can deliver best critical care and manage most of all to combat a dangerous contagious disease like COVID-19 with minimal morbidity and mortality.
Nurses should be involved in the details of the national plan for high preparedness. Integrating NHFC-COVID19 framework into nurses training. The framework would enhance their critical thinking and their capacity for complex problem-solving. The NHFC-COVID19 need to be also tested in scenarios of uncertainties in the future, especially if the outbreak carries sudden rising emergencies attacks as the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is crucial that nurse staff is trained to employ protocols extracted from experience with NHFC-COVID19 for management of the COVID -19, SARS-CoV-2. This would help to develop protocols that are beyond WHO COVID-19 evidence-based guidelines, for services as ventilation and general ICU care and especially in the cases where there is an overwhelming workload.
Recommendations
The following are the safety guidelines recommended by World Health Organization (WHO)
- Washing hands: Cleaning hands regularly with disinfectant or alcohol based hand sterilizing solution and warm water may help in preventing disease transmission.
- Disposable gloves should be used in case of contact with the infected person’s body fluids or feces.
- Surgical mask should be used to cover both the nose and mouth, when in the same room as a person with coronavirus. Wearing eyeglasses also may offer some protection.
- Soap and hot water should be used to wash the utensils, towels, bedding and clothing of someone with the coronavirus.
- Disinfection of exteriors which have been contaminated with respiratory droplets or other body secretions of an infected person.
- Follow all infection control measures for at least ten days even after the patient is totally recovered and did not show any symptoms of the disease.
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