Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding COVID-19 management of emergency nurses in Chengdu, the people’s republic of China

Abstract

Emergency nurses play significant roles in COVID-19 management. Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices among emergency nurses will provide basis information for enhancing the quality of COVID-19 management in emergency departments. This descriptive correlational research aimed to explore emergency nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding COVID-19 management, and their relationships. The Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) Model (Schwartz, 1976) and the literature review were used as the study framework. The survey was conducted online with 308 emergency nurses working in hospitals in Chengdu, China. Research instruments were the Demographic Data Form and the KAP Questionnaire developed by the researchers based on the Chinese Infection Prevention and Control Technical Guide in Health Care Settings (third edition) and the literature review. The KAP Questionnaire was checked for content validity by six experts, yielding an item-objective congruence score from 0.67-1. Its reliability test yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.70, 0.72, and 0.77, respectively. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation were used for data analysis. The results revealed that: 1. The participants had a good level of knowledge regarding COVID-19 management (mean 16.30, SD 1.53); 2. The participants had a positive attitude towards COVID-19 management (mean 3.57, SD 0.40); 3. The participants had good practice regarding COVID-19 management (mean 4.76, SD 0.33); 4. There were statistically significant weak positive correlations between knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.18, p < 0.01), and attitudes and practices (r = 0.33, p < 0.001). There was also a weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice (r = 0.11), but it was not statistically significant. These findings could be used as basis information for further strengthening COVID-19 management among emergency nurses in China.