Risk Perception, risk Involvement/Exposure and compliance to preventive measures to COVID-19 among nurses in a tertiary hospital in Asaba, Nigeria

Abstract

Background Covid-19 infection is a serious threat to health care workers (HCW) because it is primarily spread between people during close contact, often via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, or talking. Therefore, how HCW exposure to COVID 19 virus translates into risk of infection is thus critical for informing infection prevention and control (IPC) recommendations. Aim This study assessed the risk perception, risk involvement/exposure and compliance to preventive measures to COVID-19 among nurses in a tertiary hospital in Asaba Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive survey (Census method) was used to recruit to the study, the entire 378 nurses in a tertiary hospital in Asaba, who met the inclusion criteria. There was no sampling as the population was few. For the participatory observation of the respondents, each ward had research assistant who is a nurse selected from the unit and trained on data collection for the study. Results A subset of the nurses (9.3%) in the study centre strongly agree that Covid-19 is a mirage, and 2.6% also agree that the pandemic does not exist, while 37.8% agree that the pandemic is being politicized. Many of the nurses 141(37.3%) had contact with the environment where Covid-19 patients were cared for. For the participatory observation, decontamination of high touch surfaces was poor in most of the units. Personal protective equipment were lacking in some medical wards as only 2(50%) of the wards had all the PPE available at the time of the study. Conclusion Some of the infection preventive measures for Covid 19 were neglected by the nurses, and this calls for reminder in the form of posters at strategic spots in the hospital and further trainings on IPC.

Compliance to Infection Prevention and Control Practices Among Healthcare Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

“…Quarantine centers were established, and some government hospitals were redesigned into full or partial COVID-19 hospitals (15). Similar studies on compliance of HCWs to IPC during care of patients with COVID-19 and their associated factors have been carried out (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). However, they were confined mostly to HCWs working in hospitals.…”

“…Non-compliance among HCWs in the ED could be contributed by the hectic and busy nature of work in the ED where there are many varied patients with different severity, with some requiring emergency procedures, making it difficult for them to keep changing their PPE each time for different patients ( 35 , 41 ). A study by Ezike et al found that preventive measures were not strictly adhered to in medical wards, children wards, and clinic and maternity complexes ( 21 ). The finding of significant non-compliance among HCWS who had worked for more than 10 years was consistent with the findings by Osborne ( 42 ).…”

Lessons from Compliance to Covid-19 Infection Prevention and Control Measures Among Health Care Workers in Somalia: Making a Case to Improve Preparedness and Readiness for National Health Security in a Fragile Setting

“…A study conducted in Ethiopia found that HCWs who perceived themselves to be at lower risk neglected some IPC measures [27,28]. HCW attitude, closely linked to perceptions, has also influenced how HCWs adhere to IPC measures [28][29][30][31]. HCWs who had tested for COVID-19 were more likely to be compliant compared to those who had not previously tested.…”

Correlation of safety behavior, handover quality, and risk perception: A cross-sectional study among Chinese psychiatric nurses

“…Moreover, prior research found that positive risk perception can promote individuals to choose and adopt nursing safety behaviors, thereby improving the quality of patient care ( 17 , 18 ). Risk perception, characterized as an individual’s subjective judgments about the likelihood of various objective risks, has been a research focus in the field of risk management ( 19 , 20 ). Information on risk interacts with knowledge, personal values, and personal beliefs to produce a subjective expression, that is, perception.…”