Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
Aims: Being a novel viral disease, we sought to evaluate the knowledge and practice of doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital regarding the disease.
Subjects and methods: Using a self-administered questionnaire, respondents were asked questions on the cause, clinical features, and prevention of COVID-19.
Results: : We studied 409 respondents (238 doctors and 171 nurses) with a mean age of 34 ± 7 years and a median length of experience of five (IQR 2-9) years. The mean knowledge score was 9.6 ± 1.2 out of a maximum of 12 points with 337 (82.4%) respondents having good knowledge. The majority of respondents (62.8%) had not been trained on infection prevention and control since the outbreak of the pandemic. Only 95 (23.2%) had seen COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) displayed in the hospital. The use of the personal protective equipment (PPE) kit comprising the N-95 mask, face shield, gown, and shoes was seen by 194 (47.4%) respondents in recent times. A total of 397 (97.0%) respondents felt they were at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 relative to the general populace. Measures taken to prevent COVID-19 included: wearing of face mask (68.7%), hand gloves (78.2%), frequent use of hand sanitizers (84.1%), frequent hand washing (84.8%), the daily wash of uniforms and ward coats (44.5%), daily cleaning of footwear (31.7%), and avoidance of taking home clothing and footwear worn in the hospital (54.2%).
Conclusion: Despite having good knowledge of transmission and clinical features of SARS-CoV 2, the utilization of protective measures by HCW in this study is unsatisfactory.
Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; healthcare workers; knowledge; pandemic; physical distancing.