Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID-19 among paramedics in Saudi Arabia: Implications for educational program

Abstract

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing public health issue, which threatens the lives of more than 2.4 million people worldwide. This study's purpose is to establish paramedics’ knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. An online cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted among paramedics in four hospitals via WhatsApp Messenger. The study population was composed of paramedics aged 18 years and above. A pre-validated questionnaire was used to evaluate KAP towards COVID-19. Bloom’s cut-off of 80% was used to assess sufficient knowledge (≥80%), positive attitude (≥4), and good practice (≥2.4). All analyses were performed using SPSS version 26 of the approaching 300 paramedics, 71 (24%) responded. The majority of participants were male (n=61, n=85.9%), with an average age of 33 (range: 18–57) years. Overall, 4.2% (n=3) had sufficient knowledge, 42% (n=30) had a positive attitude, and 4% (n=4) had good practice regarding to COVID-19. There was a statistically significant difference between paramedics’ KAP according to their socio-demographic characteristics. Younger paramedics (≥ 18) have sufficient knowledge and a good practice toward COVID-19 than older paramedics (≥37) (p=0.000, p=0.005), respectively. Older paramedics (≥37) have a positive attitude towards COVID-19 relative to younger paramedics (≥ 18) (p=0.000). A statistically significant difference between the total KAP and the level of education (p=0.000) at which the diploma (p=0.000) had sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 than the bachelors and the postgraduate level. Bachelor's and graduates have a positive attitude (p=0.000) towards COVID-19 than the diploma. Saudi paramedics have poor knowledge of COVID-19. In addition, the results of this study have shown that there are statistically significant differences in KAPs’ paramedics according to their demographic characteristics. The author suggests follow-up studies concerning emergency medical services (EMS) settings around the country. Relevance to clinical practice: Ongoing professional education program for Saudi paramedics is encouraged to improve knowledge of paramedics, thus preventing negative attitudes and encouraging constructive preventive and therapeutic practices.

The Preparedness of Emergency Medical Services Students for Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Cross-Sectional Study among Paramedic Students

“…Nonetheless, they have reported less understanding of EMS paramedic of 36.72±4.82 and 90.5 % respectively than physicians, pharmacists and nurses. The findings confirmed the recent results reported by Alrazeeni [18] that only 4.2 % of EMS students have adequate information on the transmission, diagnosis and prevention of COVID-19.…”

“…The study has revealed that HCWs have satisfactory knowledge (93.2 %), attitude (mean 8.43) and practice (88.7 %) regarding COVID-19 and pharmacists had greater knowledge (94.7 %) than physicians (93.3 %) and EMS paramedics (90.5 %) and no significant differences in the variance were found (p=0.383). In the EMS setting, Alrazeeni et al has reported that only 4.2 % of EMS students have adequate information on the transmission, diagnosis and prevention of COVID-19 [18] .…”

Study of Post-COVID-19 Syndrome in Saudi Arabia

“…It affected nearly 172 million people worldwide; 75% of them recovered either completely or with some complications. Arab countries of the Gulf, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are the least affected [ 6 ].…”

Enhancing the health coverage in India by empowering the corona warriors through educational intervention

“…The results of the present study highlighted poor-to-moderate knowledge among 66.84% of the participants before attending the training which was found to be in line with other national and international studies, emphasizing a poor-to-moderate knowledge among HCW in absence of any comprehensive training program. [7][8][9]15,16 The knowledge among the study participants was found to be lower as compared to other international studies undertaken in the Egypt (80.4%), Uganda (82.4%), and Ethiopia (86.4%). [17][18][19] The higher knowledge score in previous studies can be explained as these studies emphasised on basic knowledge related to COVID-19 such as clinical manifestation and transmission of the virus whereas the present study gave more emphasis on questions related to prevention and management of COVID-19.…”

“…5,6 This eventually resulted in poor-to-moderate knowledge among the HCW as reported by previous studies from the country. [7][8][9] Since nurses are at the frontline and play a vital role in managing the pandemic cases, it is important to keep them updated about the current advances in knowledge about prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of COVID-19 and also important to maintain an optimistic attitude and good practices in managing the patients during pandemic crisis. 10 Considering limited availability of accurate information regarding treatment and management of COVID-19 for HCW and to prepare them for the surge in COVID-19 cases, an online comprehensive training program was conceptualised by ILBS-ECHO (Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences-Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) to strengthen the HCW against COVID-19 across the country.…”