Knowledge and Practice among University Nursing Students Regarding Covid-19 in Clinical Placements at Public Training Hospitals, Khomas Region Namibia

Data Collection

An online structured questionnaire in English language via google forms was utilized to collect data. The researcher formulated the online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of demographic, knowledge and practice based closed-ended questions and three sections. Data collection commenced as soon as permission was received from the School of Nursing and Public Health and written informed consent from the participants. Data was analysed using SPSS version 26 and presented in Table 1.

Ethics

Permission to conduct the study was received from the School of Nursing and Public Health and an informed written consent from the participants. The following principles where adhered to during the study, respect for a person, justice, non-maleficence and beneficence.

The results in table 1 indicated that (35.5%) of the participants were less than 20 years of age, (61.3%) were 20-29 of age, and (3.2%) were above 40 years. (87.1%) were females while (12.9%) were males. Regarding the education level all participant are educated with (93.5%) having acquired their grade 12 certificate, (6.5%) have obtained their national diploma and none of the participants have acquired their bachelor’s degree nor a master. (93.5%) show that majority of the participants have less than 2 years of nursing experience while the remaining (6.5%) of the participants have more than 2 years of nursing experience. This simple shows that majority of the participants were young with fresh minds from high school, they are all educated and they can easily be taught, adapt and adhere the practices that prevents the spread and contacting corona virus. Some participants have previous experience in the nursing field making them to have knowledge regarding nursing practices.

Knowledge regarding COVID-19 in Clinical Placement

Shows It was established from the study table 2 that the majority of the participants have enough knowledge regarding COVID-19 as (67.7%) of the participants know what is COVID-19 and what causes COVID-19, (64.5%) of the participants from the study showed that they know that masks and hand-gloves are fruitful in prevention of the infection, (87.1%) knows that COVID-19 makes the condition worse among elderly and people with commodities, (67.7%) of the participants knows that COVID-19 can be transmitted even when fever is absent and (71%) knows that asymptomatic COVID-19 can also be transmitted, (87.1%) knows that everyone needs preventative measures, (83,3%) knows that the virus is transmitted through droplets and (80.6%) from the study shows that they know that COVID-19 diagnosis is confirmed by a nasopharyngeal swab testing. By looking at the results in percentile from the study it showed that the majority of the participants have knowledge regarding COVID-19 this finding is similar to the study conducted by Giao, et al. [3] on the knowledge and attitude toward COVID-19 among healthcare workers at district hospital in China, which showed that most of the healthcare workers had good knowledge and positive attitude toward COVID-19.

Based on the findings of the study it shows that majority of the participants (76.7%), knows that the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry cough and myalgia portraying a good level of knowledge regarding COVID-19 signs and symptoms. The study done by WHO [4] Situation Report No 34 defined a suspected case of COVID-19 as a patient with acute respiratory illness, fever, and at least one sign or symptom of respiratory disease e.g. shortness of breath, cough.

yes 25 61.3

Shows from the study the results in table 3 indicated that majority of the participants do safe practices regarding COVID-19 like the study shows that (64.5%) of the participants washes their hands with soap and water for at least 20 to 20 seconds to prevent the spread of the infection, (71%) follows the social distancing to avoid contact with infected persons, (61.3%) wears their mask when going outside and always carries their sanitizers which is not a satisfactory percentage as everyone is supposed to put on their masks when outdoors and always carry their sanitizer to disinfect their hands when they touch something, (87.1%) of the participants washes or changes their masks frequently which is a good practice to prevent inhaling in of the virus from prolonged use and contamination of masks. Only (54.8%) avoids going to crowded places and only (58.1%) practice good respiratory hygiene and avoid touching eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hand and the average of (63.3) avoid hand shaking and touching surfaces unnecessarily. According to this finding from the study it is noted that participants practice safe practices regarding COVID-19 but only the average number of participants do it which is not enough in aiding with the prevention of the spread of COVID-19. According to the study conducted by Wong, et al. [5] performing the preventive measure to control COVID-19 infection is the most critical intervention, which includes, hand-washing, facility cleaning, respiratory hygiene, national travel advice, communicating and promoting the message ‘stay at home’ and meetings and event arrangements. People should practice more of this practice to aid with the spread of the virus.

For Further Research

1. Further research should be conducted on the effect of COVID-19 vaccine on humans..
2. Rate of survival of COVID-19 in a dead body.
3. Why children rarely get infected by COVID-19.