Perception of Health Care Practitioners of Government Designated COVID-19 Hospitals of Nepal towards the Management of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Sagar Panthi,Sanjib Kumar Sharma,Amrit Raj Jaishi,Swotantra Gautam,Navin Bhatt,Siddhartha Bhandari,Lila Bahadur Basnet

doi:10.31729/jnma.7093

Abstract

Amidst the chaos of COVID-19, health care practitioners are persistently providing services and experiencing many challenges. This study aimed to determine the perception of health care practitioners of government designated COVID-19 hospitals of Nepal towards the management of COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the frontline health care practitioners working in the government designated COVID-19 hospitals in Nepal from 21st June, 2020 to 15th August, 2020. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Board of the Nepal Health Research Council (Reference number: 347/2020 P). A total of 252 health care practitioners (doctors, nurses, and paramedics) working at the forefront in the emergency ward, general wards, intensive care units, isolation centers, fever clinics, laboratory, quarantine centers, help desks, etc. in the designated hospitals who consented to participate were included in the study. Convenience sampling was used. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Only 41 (16.3%) (11.73-20.86 at 95% Confidence Interval) of the health care practitioners were found to have satisfactory perception towards the management of COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal. The satisfactory perception of the health care practitioners in our study towards the management of COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal is lower as compared to the other studies in Nepal and abroad.

Highlights

Amidst the chaos of COVID-19, health care practitioners are persistently providing services and experiencing many challenges
Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Board of the Nepal Health Research Council (Reference number: 347/2020 P). 252 health care practitioners (HCPs) working at the forefront in the emergency ward, general wards, intensive care units, isolation centers, fever clinics, laboratory, quarantine centers, help desks, etc. during the pandemic in the government designated COVID-19 hospitals who consented to participate were included in the study
89 (35.3%) felt that the information on COVID-19 provided to the HCPs was complete and updated

Summary

Introduction

Amidst the chaos of COVID-19, health care practitioners are persistently providing services and experiencing many challenges. While the health care practitioners (HCPs) are providing their services amidst COVID-19 pandemic, they are at constant risk of infecting themselves, their patients, their families, and their colleagues.[1] Besides, in a low-resource setting like Nepal, due to the limited availability of protective equipment, additional challenges like overwhelming workload, widespread media coverage with unscientific information, lack of specific therapy, and feelings of inadequacy come forth.[1,2]. A study by Li Y, et al suggests that the frontline HCPs go through peri-outbreak and post-outbreak psychological stress and sense a lack of self-security and the risk of transmission of infection to themselves and others.[3] there is a dearth of literature.

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