Abstract
Background: COVID-19 emerged from Wuhan city, Hubei province of China and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in January, 2020. Pregnant women have not been spared from this pandemic thereby putting at risk the nurses and midwives who take care of such women considering the close proximity of care especially during delivery. At the heart of the pandemic, fear is heightened among nurses as frontline workers due to unavailability of personal protective equipment. This study aims to assess the availability and accessibility of personal protective equipment and fears of acquiring COVID-19 among nurses and midwives attending to women at the Women and New Born Hospital and First Level Hospitals, in Lusaka, Zambia.Methodology: Nurses and midwives (n = 384) attending to women in maternity wards at the Women and Newborn Hospital and five (5) first level health facilities in Lusaka, Zambia will answer a monkey survey whose link will be sent via a WhatsApp group. They will answer questions on the socio demographic variables, availability and accessibility of PPEs and will be assessed for anxiety levels using the Form Y State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Data will be analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0. Chi-square will be used on nominal and ordinal level variables and Pearson correlation will be used on interval and ratio level variables to determine the association between availability and accessibility of personal protective equipment and the levels of anxiety and depression. Conclusion:The findings from this study may be key for information on accessibility and availability of personal protective equipment use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information on levels of anxiety among nurses and midwives will guide stakeholders on the need of mental health wellness among the caregivers
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