Palestinian Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal (Pal. Med. Pharm. J.)

Article info

Keywords

• Palestine
• health care workers
• COVID-19 virus
• KAP

Abstract

Background: An emerging public health issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is threatening the lives of more than 2.4 million people globally. The current study assessed Palestine's nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding COVID-19. Methods: An online cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken through social media. The KAP in the approaching COVID-19 virus was evaluated using an approved questionnaire. Bloom's cut-off of sufficient knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice used high or equal medi-an utility indexes. All analyzes were performed using SPSS. Results: the 353 nurses that were entered. The participants' ages ranged from 25 to 35, with a median age of 26, and the ma-jority were male (n = 195, or 55.2%). The mean knowledge score was 19.1 with a standard deviation of 2.98, and the median knowledge score was 19.0 with an interquartile range (IQR) of 18.0 to 21.0. The total score for knowledge was 25. The interquartile range for the attitude score was 16.0 to 21.0, with 18.0 as the median, and the mean attitude score was 18.3 (SD = 3.7), giving the overall attitude score of 26. 24 was the final practice score. The mean practice score was 9.9 (SD = 2.4), and the median practice score was 9.0, with an inter-quartile range of 8.0 to 11.0. Overall, 66% (n = 233) had sufficient knowledge, 39.1% (n = 138) had a positive attitude, and 27.5% (n = 97) had good practice with COVID-19. De-mographics and work-related issues statistically weigh much as female nurses had better pre-ventive practice than male nurses (p < 0.05), and the age of nurses (experienced nurses) had a significant impact on the prevention and perception domains of COVID-19 (p < 0.05). Con-clusions: The study showed sufficient knowledge, positive attitude, and nurses have good prevention practices for COVID-19. However, there is no significant value, but there are still deviations or deficiencies in the nurses’ understanding of certain important attitudes and the adoption of relevant preventive measures; tailored health education programs are advised to improve levels of attitudes and practices.

معلومات المقال

الكلمات الإفتتاحية

• Palestine
• health care workers
• COVID-19 virus
• KAP

الملخص

Background: An emerging public health issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is threatening the lives of more than 2.4 million people globally. The current study assessed Palestine's nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding COVID-19. Methods: An online cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken through social media. The KAP in the approaching COVID-19 virus was evaluated using an approved questionnaire. Bloom's cut-off of sufficient knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice used high or equal medi-an utility indexes. All analyzes were performed using SPSS. Results: the 353 nurses that were entered. The participants' ages ranged from 25 to 35, with a median age of 26, and the ma-jority were male (n = 195, or 55.2%). The mean knowledge score was 19.1 with a standard deviation of 2.98, and the median knowledge score was 19.0 with an interquartile range (IQR) of 18.0 to 21.0. The total score for knowledge was 25. The interquartile range for the attitude score was 16.0 to 21.0, with 18.0 as the median, and the mean attitude score was 18.3 (SD = 3.7), giving the overall attitude score of 26. 24 was the final practice score. The mean practice score was 9.9 (SD = 2.4), and the median practice score was 9.0, with an inter-quartile range of 8.0 to 11.0. Overall, 66% (n = 233) had sufficient knowledge, 39.1% (n = 138) had a positive attitude, and 27.5% (n = 97) had good practice with COVID-19. De-mographics and work-related issues statistically weigh much as female nurses had better pre-ventive practice than male nurses (p < 0.05), and the age of nurses (experienced nurses) had a significant impact on the prevention and perception domains of COVID-19 (p < 0.05). Con-clusions: The study showed sufficient knowledge, positive attitude, and nurses have good prevention practices for COVID-19. However, there is no significant value, but there are still deviations or deficiencies in the nurses’ understanding of certain important attitudes and the adoption of relevant preventive measures; tailored health education programs are advised to improve levels of attitudes and practices.