Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among health care professionals in a tertiary hospital regarding handling COVID 19 deceased bodies – A questionnaire based study.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice in handling Covid 19 deceased bodies among health care professionals. Methodology: A pre validated questionnaire consisting of questions to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards dead body care handlingand disposal of Covid 19 bodies was given in using google forms to the study participant which included the healthcare professionals working at present in a tertiary care hospital. The responses were categorized into two professional categories: nursing staff and medical doctors. The average positive responses for knowledge, attitude, and practice questions were calculated for each category. Results: The study was conducted among 140 participants (61 nurses and 79 doctors). It was found that on comparing their knowledge of handling COVID-19 deceased individuals, 73.31% of nursing staff and only 67.88% of medical doctors had accurate knowledge on the subject.When it comes to the attitude while handling COVID-19 deceased individuals, 45.07% of nursing staff and 44.3% of medical doctors exhibited a positive attitude.When it comes to practice of handling COVID-19 deceased individuals, 40.97% of nursing staff and only 34.17% of medical doctors exhibited proper practice. Conclusion: The findings reveal that nursing staff possess higher levels of accurate knowledge and a positive attitude, though the difference is not statistically significant. However, both groups demonstrate gaps in proper practices concerning the handling of COVID-19 deceased bodies. This study highlights the importance of ongoing training and awareness to improve safe handling procedures, thereby reducing the risk of infection transmission to healthcare professionals.