ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude and practice plays a major role in determining the readiness of the community to adopt the behavioural change towards recommended preventive measures outlined by public health officials. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among university students as well as its associated factors. METHOD: This is a cross sectional study that was conducted among students in a public university during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. An online validated self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine the association between independent variables with knowledge, attitude, and practice score. RESULTS: Overall response rate of this study was 92.9 (n=524). Median score of knowledge domain was 78.0 (IQR= ±12.0), median attitude score of 49.0 (IQR= ±5.0), and median practice score of 80.0 (IQR= ±11.0). The mean knowledge, attitude and practice score were significantly higher among diploma holder (vs degree holder, p<0.05), residing in main Kota Kinabalu campus (vs non-KK campus, p<0.001), studying in medical faculty (vs non-medical faculty, p<0.001), and attended COVID-19 education (vs non-attendance; p<0.05). CONCLUSION: COVID-19 related knowledge and attitude were below satisfactory level during earlier phase of the pandemic. However, majority of respondents have positive behaviour towards COVID-19 prevention. This highlights the importance of accurate and tailored health education to improve the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of recommended measures to prevent COVID-19 spread.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Recent Coronavirus outbreak has raised concern among student nurses who are doing their clinical posting tenure regarding the risk of patient acquired infection. This study examined perceived readiness to provide coronavirus patient careduring clinical posting among student nurses in UMS. Method: This study deployed a cross-section survey design using a self-rated questionnaire to evaluate respondents' level of readiness towards Coronavirus patient care. A total of 177 (N) respondents comprising of nursing students from UMS (year 1 n=55, year 2 n=56, year 3 n=66) participated in the study. The study questionnaire captured demographics and comprised of 15Likert-scale items that assessed the level of perceived readiness to provide Coronavirus patient care. The questionnaire was adapted from a previous SARs pandemic studyand revalidated within the local context (a = 0.78). Data analysis used descriptive statistics by frequency counts and Fisher exact test for demographic correlates with the level of readiness. Results: Among 177 student nurses in this study68% (n= 121) were willing and ready to provide Coronavirus patient care and 32% (n = 56) were hesitant or not willing. Regarding confidence of safety using PPE to provide patient care, 34 % (n = 61) of respondents rated not confident and deemed it hazardous even with full PPE use. On the issue of if legally mandated to care for Coronavirus patients, 22% were hesitant to provide care and will considerleaving nursing training if compelled to do so. There was a significantly lower perceived level of readiness towards Coronavirus patient care among 1st-year student nurses and those who had not attended any Coronavirus educational session (p= 0.06). Conclusion: The findings indicate although the majority of student nurses are willing to provide care for Coronavirus infected patients during their clinical posting tenure, a small proportion of student's nurses were hesitant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Malaysian Journal of Medicine & Health Sciences is the property of Universiti Putra Malaysia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)