PREDICTORS OF COVID-19 PREVENTION PRACTICES AMONG HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AT BUSIA COUNTY REFERRAL HOSPITAL-KENYA

Abstract

SARS-COV-2 is a subgenus of the Sarbecovirus, a member of the Coronaviridae family, and an enveloped RNA virus. November 2019 saw the discovery of the first COVID-19 human case in China's Wuhan live market. The earliest transmission occurred between people and animals, and then it occurred inside the human race. As of June 11, 2021, Busia County had a total of 3,982 infected people, of whom 157 were healthcare professionals from all cadres. Of them, 2 healthcare professionals died from COVID-19, representing a positive rate of 3.9%. Thirty percent of all healthcare professional infections in the county, which consists of seven sub-counties, were related to Busia County Referral Hospital. The primary goal was to evaluate the knowledge, awareness, and practices of medical professionals on the COVID-19 pandemic at Kenya's Busia County Referral Hospital. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was used in the investigation. The County Referral Hospital provided both quantitative and qualitative data for the collection. It was determined that a sample size of 153 would provide data from the various stratified cadres. The World Health Organization's Risk Assessment and Management Questionnaire Regarding Exposure of Healthcare Workers to COVID-19 and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Facility Readiness Assessment for Coronavirus Disease 2019 Questionnaire were the sources from which the data collection tools were adapted to create a structured questionnaire and a key informant guide for managers of each relevant key cadre. The statistical software for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used to clean, code, sort, and analyze the acquired quantitative and qualitative data. Frequencies, pie charts, graphs, proportions, and tables were used to display the data. The bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to evaluate the relationships between the variables. When the p-value is less than 0.05 (p<0.05) and the confidence interval is 95% (CI 95%), the correlation is deemed significant. The research found that shorter training sessions (one to two days) and shorter employment durations (one to three years) were associated with statistically significant increases in the likelihood of reporting proper COVID-19 management practices (p = 0.03) and 2.1, respectively. Additionally, there was a statistically significant correlation between the awareness of the five moments of hand hygiene (p=0.007) and audit (p=0.004) in reporting appropriate pandemic management practices. Furthermore, in order to support appropriate COVID-19 management practices, the presence of gloves, face masks, thermoguns, screening checklists, and designated focal persons at triage was associated with greater chances >2.5 with p>0.05. Respondents who said that an infection prevention and control committee existed had 5.2 chances (p=0.03) of following the right procedures while managing pandemics. The study suggested consistent evidence-based education and training, sufficient supplies in accordance with the produced list of necessities, modification and distribution of policy documents, and, lastly, research on the effects of COVID-19 mitigation techniques.