COVID-19 Knowledge Level Research in Nurses

Author(s): Suphi Aydin, Aydin Balci

Coronavirus caused a rapid spread around the world, starting from an animal market in Wuhan city, Hubei Province in China in December 2019. This virus has been named the 2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by the World Health Organization (WHO). On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the new coronavirus infection as COVID-19 infection. With this infection, mortality rates have increased. Psychological pressure on society and healthcare personnel has increased. Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Medical Faculty Hospital is a pandemic hospital and there are patients infected with COVID-19. However, nurses' knowledge and attitudes towards infectious diseases and their desire to work during COVID-19 outbreak have not been investigated yet. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of the nurses working in Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Medical Faculty Hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak. 123 nurses were included in the study. In this study, cluster sampling system was used. Participants responded to a questionnaire study questioning the basic information of 34 items. During the COVID-19 outbreak, 97.6% of the nurses studied had extensive information on the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 infection and 88% on diagnostic methods. In addition, approximately 66.7% of the participants had a story of contact with the patient with proven COVID-19 positivity. 91.1% thought it was likely to get this infection. As a result; This study shows that during the COVID-19 outbreak, more attention should be paid to the knowledge and attitudes of nurses working in pandemic hospitals, and measures should be taken to reduce stress levels.