Use of personal protective equipment in Oyo hospital unsatisfactory —Study

ALTHOUGH the majority of health care workers in Oyo State practise safe measures in the prevention of COVID-19, including washing of hands, routine cleaning and high-level disinfection, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is low, a study has said.

The study found that only 56.8 per cent of health care workers use personal protective equipment like masks, gloves and gowns, although the majority of them practise safe measures in the prevention of COVID-19 including washing of hands (95.3 per cent), routine cleaning (82.7per cent) and high-level disinfection (83.9 per cent).

It was a hospital-based cross-sectional survey conducted between February and March 2020 at eight randomly selected secondary and primary health care facilities in Oyo State.

The study, which involved 350 healthcare workers, had assessed the knowledge, attitude and the practice of Oyo State health care workers on COVID-19 as part of emergency preparedness.

It was in the 2020 edition of the journal, Advances in Infectious Diseases. It involved Ayinde, O.O., Usman, A.B., Posi, A. and Gbolahan, A.

According to the study, the level of good knowledge on COVID-19 was 78.6 per cent and positive attitude towards the COVID-19 outbreak was 64 per cent among the respondents.

In addition, predictors of good knowledge on COVID-19 were being a female healthcare worker, having spent over nine years working in a hospital and being a secondary or tertiary facility.

The researchers declared, “Overall knowledge and attitude were satisfactory, however, the practices of health care workers on the use of personal protective equipment was not satisfactory.

“Effective infection control measures including regular skill-based training and/or orientation for all categories of health care workers can improve infection control practices in health facilities.”

According to them, although most of them know that COVID19 is a global issue, they were not too keen on the ban of public gathering and shutting down of schools as a preventive measure.

“This shows that the HCWs need to be educated further on the mode of spread and prevention of the disease. These findings further suggested that education for HCW on the mode of transmission and prevention is very important,” they added

They, however, said future studies could estimate the knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers on a larger scale to be able to design appropriate interventions at the national level.

Health care workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to hazards that put them at risk of infection.

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