Knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare providers towards chest physiotherapy for COVID-19 patients at Al Baha, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: The knowledge, attitude, and practice of health professionals in Covid-19 medical centers are considered as the cornerstone for improvement of Covid-19 patients. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the healthcare professionals in chest physiotherapy for COVID-19 patients. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study; it was conducted among healthcare professionals working at ICUs at King Fahad Hospital and Prince Meshari Hospital, in Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia. A convenient sampling technique was used to collect data using a questionnaire about knowledge attitude and practice toward chest physiotherapy for COVID-19 patients which was adopted from a previously validated questionnaire. A specific coding for knowledge, attitude and practice was used to calculate the overall scores. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Among 34 of healthcare providers working at King Fahad Hospital (44.1%) and Prince Meshari Hospital (55.9%), it was shown that 82.4% of healthcare providers have adequate knowledge, 91.2% have positive attitude and 70.6% have appropriate practice towards COVID-19 physiotherapy in ICUs. A significant relationship was reported between marital status of healthcare providers and adequate knowledge (p=0.39), where singles and divorced participants have 100% adequate knowledge compared to married workers. It was also reported that knowledge significantly enhances levels of attitude and practice of healthcare providers by 0.609 and 0.61 respectively. Furthermore, their attitude affects positively the level of practice by 0.572. Conclusions: This study highlighted that majority of healthcare providers (physiotherapists, nurses or medical) are knowledgeable; they also have positive attitude and appropriate practices about COVID-19 physiotherapy management in ICUs at Al-Baha governmental hospitals. Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, healthcare professionals, COVID-19, physiotherapy.