Effect of Educational Sessions about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Knowledge, Practice and Attitudes of Nurses in Zagazig Fever Hospital

Abstract

Background: The fast and global spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has become a major cause of concern for the healthcare profession. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of educational sessions about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on knowledge, practice and attitudes of nurses in Zagazig Fever Hospital. Subjects and Methods: Research design: A quasi experimental research design was used in carrying out the study with pre/posttest. Setting: the study was conducted at Zagazig Fever Hospital, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Tools of data collection: Three tools were used: Tool (I): A self-administered questionnaire; It consisted of two parts: Part one was used to collect data pertaining to personal characteristics of the nurses, while part two involved questions regarding nurses knowledge about COVID-19. Tool (II): Nurse’s practice observation checklist to determine the hand washing practice during COVID-19. Tool (III): was intended to assess nurse’s attitudes toward COVID-19. Results: The comparison of pre, posttests knowledge, practice and attitudes on nurses revealed highly statistically significant improvement (p <0.001) that approved the research hypothesis of implementation, where the total mean of their knowledge increased from 23.915±9.539 in pre- intervention, to 43.366±0.914 at intervention and 42.746±1.509 at post intervention. All nurses (100%) were having satisfactory level of knowledge at intervention and post intervention. The total mean score of their attitudes increased from 16.929±2.344 in pre intervention to 19.098±1.415 at intervention and 18.873±1.482 at post intervention with (p < 0.001) for all changes. Conclusion: the posttest and follow-up knowledge, practice and attitudes’ score was higher than the pretest score of nurses. Recommendations: Continuous campaigns are required for nurses to prevent and control COVID-19 successfully with illustrated booklets for maintaining knowledge, emphasis should also be placed on training and retraining health professionals in the correct hand washing steps as well as media awareness campaigns on this disease.