Healthcare Professionals Providing Direct Care to the COVID-19 Patients: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 highly contagious viruses that have reached every corner of the world. Despite the heroic efforts to control the pandemic, health care professional risk for COVID-19 exposure was an important measure to identify due to lack of personal protective equipment. The objective of the study was to find out the prevalence of healthcare professionals providing direct care to the COVID-19 patient.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional was conducted through online questionnaire from June 2020 to August 2020. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Board of Nepal Health Research Council (Reference number: 363/2020 P). World Health Organization risk assessment protocol questionnaire was used for COVID-19 and distributed among 300 health care workers of Nepal involved in the management of COVID-19 hospitals. Convenience sampling was used. The KoBo toolbox was used for online data collection. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data.

Results: Among 300 study participants, 109 (36.33%), (30.85-41.74 at 95% Confidence Interval) of participants provide direct care to infected patients. With total respondents, 41 (37.61%) were registered nurses, medical doctors 28 (25.68%) and paramedics 36 (33.02%).

Conclusions: Health care workers who provide direct care to the COVID-19 patient were similar to other studies done in similar settings. About half of the participants were exposed to COVID-19 virus from the hospital setting rather than from community setting which is similar to the study done in similar setting which might be due to lack of follow of protocols during COVID-19 patient care.

Keywords: COVID-19; healthcare professionals; Nepal; risk..