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

Abstract

Background: Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus, the front line soldiers during this pandemic are the healthcare professionals because of their direct association with COVID19 patients. In the management of such patients, nurses play a significant role through proper care and preventive measures. Due to its contagious nature, fatality, and no proper medicine, it is a risk to the health and life of nurses and has an impact on their psychological health. The aim of the current study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practices, and anxiety levels of the frontline nurses.

Methods: It was an online questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey targeting only those 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. P-value <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Data of 78 nurses were analyzed. We observed that nurses possess good knowledge about COVID-19, its sources, symptoms, and routes of transmission of the Virus, etc. The knowledge mean score was calculated at 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 severe anxiety and anxiety levels are significantly higher among females (P<0.05).

Conclusion:-We concluded 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.