Willingness and perceptions toward COVID-19 prevention among full-time students in Medical Universities in Vietnam: An online survey.

Abstract

Background: Full-time students studying at medical university are an important human resource that can effectively assist in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and future medical emergencies. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to document the perceptions of full-time students at six Universities of Medicine and Pharmacy in Vietnam towards COVID-19 prevention and control. Results: Female was 71.85%, Kinh ethnic group was 83.49%, and 72.30% in the background study. The proportion of participants referred that they could be involved in taking care of COVID-19 patients was 50.27%, knowing how to use personal protective equipment was 49.65%, detecting severe signs in COVID-19 patients was 66.89%, instructing patients on COVID-19 treatment measures was 41.97%, diagnosing people infected with COVID was 24.13%. There were 94.18% willing to participate in COVID-19 prevention and control. Some factors affecting students' willingness were gender, school year, vaccination, training on epidemic prevention, parental agreements, and friends/relatives infected with COVID-19. Factors that affected students' perception of their role in COVID-19 prevention were university location, number of years in universities, parental agreements, self-efficacy, transition to remote learning, altruism, and psychological stress. Conclusion: Full-time students studying at medical universities are highly willing to participate the COVID-19 prevention and control. But they perceived their abilities as limited. Thorough training is important for the recruitment of emergency responses in the future. Solutions to address the possible interruptions of the training program to participation are needed.