Assessment of Gap Between Knowledge and Practice of PPES among Healthcare Professionals During Covid-19"

Objective: To assess the gap between knowledge and practice of PPEs among healthcare professionals during COVID-19. Study design: Cross-Sectional study. Study setting: Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan. Study Duration: May-August 2020. Methodology: A total of 214 Healthcare professionals (including medical and paramedical staff) were included in this study using convenient sampling technique. Data was collected on pre-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire included information regarding age, sex, job title, working station, etc. then data was entered in and analyzed by using SPSS Version. 21. Numerical variables like age was presented as mean +/- standard deviation. Categorical variables like sex, job title, working station were shown as percentages. Results: Our study included the subjects with 88 (41.1%) males and 126 (58.9%) females. Mean age of study subjects came out to be 26.6 +/- 3.954 years. It is observed that only 95 (44.4%) of the subjects have PPEs; only 85 (39.7%) were provided PPEs from their respective healthcare authorities and 137 (64%) can afford purchasing PPEs on their own. And there is a major gap seen between the knowledge about PPEs/ appreciation of their effectiveness and the practice of PPEs by these healthcare professionals. Regarding PPEs (which include gown, surgical mask, N-95 mask, gloves, goggles, head cover, shoe cover, social distancing, hand sanitizer and hand washing), this lag is seen majorly among the healthcare professionals working in general wards; less among emergency staff and least among the subjects working at flu filter clinic or isolation wards. Conclusion: Majority of healthcare professionals appreciate the effectiveness of PPEs against corona virus but don't bring them into practice; either due to non-availability of PPEs or they have some attitude problem towards it.