Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of COVID-19 management among nursing officers at Base Hospital Homagama, Sri Lanka

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak challenges health systems and their ability to effectively manage public health emergencies. Nurses are not only at the forefront of the fight against this highly contagious disease but are also directly or indirectly affected by it.

Objective: To describe the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of COVID-19 management among nursing officers at Base Hospital Homagama

Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among nursing officers at Base Hospital Homagama. All nurses were taken into the study. A pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices were categorized into good and poor according to cutoff values decided by experts in relevant fields. Data analysis was done using the SPSS statistical package.

Results: Response rate for the study was 96% (232). Among them, 220 (94.8%) were females while 12 (5.2%) were males. The majority of nurses had only a nursing diploma (215, 92.7%) while the rest had a BSc or MSc (17, 7.3%). Most nurses had good knowledge of COVID-19 management (201, 86.6%) while the rest had poor knowledge. Eighty-two percent (190) nurses had good attitudes toward COVID-19 management and almost all had good practices on COVID-19 management (223, 96.1%).

Conclusion: Most of the nurses at Base Hospital Homagama had good knowledge, attitudes, and practices on COVID-19 management.