HEALTHCARE WORKERS KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICES AND STRESS LEVEL AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the knowledge, practicesand stress level of Healthcare workers amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Study Design: Cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Various hospitals and institutes of Pakistan, from Apr 2020 May 2020.

Methodology: The study was conducted for a period of One month amongst healthcare workers of Pakistan. After taking an approval from Ethical and Review Committee, a well-structured questionnaire, consisted of 18 questions was constructed and validated. It had two sections; Demography and responses covering knowledge, practices and stress level assessment of healthcare workers. The Perceived stress score 10 (PSS-10) was used to assess the stresslevels. The Questionnaire was uploaded at www.surveys. google.com and the link was distributed through e-mailandshared on social media. SPSS version-25 was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Majority of the healthcare workers (75%) had sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 presentation, progression and basic precautionary measures. 64.65% were following basic preventive protocols to combat COVID-19. Perceived stress scale scores were 29.93 indicating high stress-level amongst healthcare workers. Moreover, when perceived stress scale score was correlated with gender and different age groups a significant difference (p=0.04) and (p<0.001) were found.

Conclusion: Despite of having adequate knowledge and practices levels of healthcare workers to combat COVID-19, thestress level was found high. Hence strategy to overcome this stress and poor mental health are needed from team leaders or managers at health facilities. Additionally, in individual capacity managing mental health and psychosocial well-being during this challenging time is as important as managing one’s physical health.