Evaluation of Knowledge, Practices, Attitude and Anxiety of Pakistans Nurses towards COVID-19 during the Current Outbreak in Pakistan

Alwani, S. S.; Majeed, M. M.; Hirwani, M. Z.; Rauf, S.; Saad, S. M.; Shah, S. H.; Hamirani, F. M.

Since the emergence of novel corona virus the front line soldiers during this pandemic are the healthcare professionals because of their direct association with the patients. In the management of COVID-19 patient nurses play a significant role through proper care and preventive measures. Due to the contagious nature, fatality and no proper medicine, it is a risk to the health and life of nurses and has impact on their psychological health. In the current study we accessed the knowledge, attitude, practices and anxiety levels of the nurses who are directly involved in the management of COVID-19 patients. It was an online questionnaire based cross sectional survey targeted only those only nurses involved in the management of COVID-19 patients from different hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis, Chi Square and t-tests were applied. Value <0.05 was considered significant. Data of 78 nurses were analyzed .We observed that nurses possess good knowledge about COVID-19, its sources, symptoms, routes of transmission of virus and etc. The knowledge mean score was calculated 14.67 {+/-} 3.36. Health department /Hospital and social media are the main sources of information regarding COVID-19. We investigated that 92.3% of the nurses had mild to very severe anxiety and anxiety levels are significantly higher among the females (P<0.05). We conclude that the nurses performing their duties with COVID-19 positive patients have good knowledge and attitude. But their anxiety levels are high. Psychological interventions along with training should be given.