A Cross-Sectional Study on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Donning and Doffing of Personal Protective Equipment: An Institutional Survey of Health-Care Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Garg, Kamakshi; Grewal, Anju; Mahajan, Rajesh; Kumari, Samriti; Mahajan, Aashita

BACKGROUND: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is used to protect the health-care professional from bacterial, viral, or other hazards during this COVID-19 pandemic, and they should be made aware of proper usage of this equipment. AIMS: The aim was to evaluate how adequate knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of health-care worker toward the appropriate use of PPE, which can prevent them and the community from virus contamination. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in a span of approximately 50 days. This cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was done in 155 health-care providers posted in the COVID-19 area. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data were described in terms of range; mean ± standard deviation, frequencies (number of cases) and relative frequencies (percentages) as appropriate. RESULTS: Health-care workers (HCWs) were aware of the importance and criticality of donning and doffing procedure, but they lack the knowledge about dispersion of virus as 62% responded that virus dispersion occurs more during donning than doffing. Gaps were found in attitude as 51% of HCWs found it inconvenient to don PPE that they sometimes think of compromising their own safety. Nearly 33.5% of HCWs move out of the doffing area without removing gloves and N-95, which needs serious correction in their practice. CONCLUSION: There were major gaps in KAP at institutional level among the health-care providers with regard to donning and doffing of PPE during the beginning of this pandemic.