Abstract
This study aimed to identify knowledge gaps regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and develop an integrated educational program for healthcare workers. First, we designed and validated ten multiple-choice questions to identify knowledge gaps among healthcare workers. Within one month of the online test and curriculum offering, 5533 staff had completed the test, with a completion rate of 84.97%. There were 2618 healthcare workers who answered the pre-test 100% correctly. Those who did not answer the pre-test 100% correctly took multiple tests after learning through the online teaching materials. Eventually, 5214 staff passed the test (pre-test or post-test with 100% correct answers). The result showed that all staff had a low correct rate for personal protective equipment (PPE) use recommendations. The Infection Control Center conducted training sessions for hospital staff on how to wear protective clothing. Information on the selection and use of PPE for infection prevention was provided, and participants were allowed time to practice and familiarize themselves with the correct way to wear PPE. Moreover, the Department of Education and Research continued updating the online learning materials based on the most important updated peer-reviewed published articles. The attending teaching physicians helped to search, translate, and take notes on articles in the local language (traditional Chinese) for other colleagues to read easily. We expect to increase learning opportunities for healthcare workers, even during uncertain times such as the current coronavirus pandemic through (1) the hospital-wide course announcements, (2) the continuous placement of test questions and learning files on the digital learning platform, (3) the placement of journal highlights in cloud folders, and (4) the use of the digital learning platform on mobile phones accessible outside the hospital.
Highlights
Ten multiple-choice questions (MCQs) were developed to identify and confirm the knowledge gaps of each job category, as well as the professional knowledge and care skills required in the follow-up, through written examinations, which were used to design the follow-up curriculum reinforcement steps
An infection specialist initially designed ten MCQs, which included the basic knowledge of COVID-19 (Q1, Q3), the epidemiology of COVID-19 (Q6), the criteria for reporting suspected cases of coronavirus (Q2, Q5), the timing of hand-washing and the disinfection mechanism of dry hand sanitizers (Q4, Q7), selecting the essential personal protective equipment (PPE) (Q8), and the medical student affairs in the hospital (Q9, Q10) (Table 1)
Compared with previous studies investigating the knowledge gaps between different healthcare professionals [19,20,21], this study revealed that physicians performed better than others among most of the ten basic questions
Summary
The total deaths from acute infectious diseases have been replaced by chronic illnesses because of medicine and public health [1]. Compared with the top ten global causes of death in 2010, there were only lower respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis remaining in 2016, and the mortality of diarrheal diseases and tuberculosis decreased by almost 1.5 million [2]. The World Health Organization announced that contagious diseases are spreading throughout the world much.
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