Study of Nurses’ Knowledge About COVID-19 in Al-Hilla Teaching Hospitals

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic is a major health crisis that emerged at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century and changed the lives of millions of people globally. Nurses have close contact with infectious patients; therefore, nurses need to obtain sufficient knowledge in this regard. They need to assess their level of knowledge about COVID-19 and explore their needs to enhance and improve their knowledge in order to be more qualified to fight this virus. This study intends to assess nurses’ knowledge regarding COVID-19 and to find out the differences in nurses’ knowledge about COVID-19 with regard to their demographic variables. Methods: A descriptive (cross-sectional design) study was conducted to assess nurses’ knowledge regarding COVID-19 in Al-Hilla teaching hospitals in Al-Hilla City, Iraq, from September 25, 2020, to February 20, 2022. Using a convenient sampling method, a sample of 200 nurses working at epidemic hospitals was selected. The data collection process began with a questionnaire, which nurses answered as a self-report (questionnaire). Then the questionnaires were collected from the respondents. The average time to fill out the questionnaire was between 10 and 20 minutes. Results: The findings indicate that most nurses (58%) had poor knowledge about COVID-19. There were significant differences in nurses’ knowledge about COVID-19 with regard to their educational levels (P0.05), but there was a significant difference between nurses’ knowledge about COVID-19 with regard to their source of information about COVID-19 (P<0.05). Discussion: The present study revealed that nurses had moderate knowledge about COVID-19. They had poor knowledge related to the prevention of COVID-19, while they had poor knowledge as overall knowledge related to COVID-19.

Keywords

• study
• nurses
• knowledge
• covid-19
• hospitals