Open AccessAssessment of healthcare professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
Author(s) -
Halil Türktemiz,
Özgün Ünal,
Dilek Bingöl Aydın
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1875-9270
pISSN - 1051-9815
DOI - 10.3233/wor-205305
Subject(s) - personal protective equipment , pandemic , covid-19 , health care , perception , health professionals , psychology , nursing , descriptive statistics , data collection , reliability (semiconductor) , medicine , family medicine , disease , political science , power (physics) , statistics , physics , mathematics , pathology , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
BACKGROUND: Determining the healthcare professionals’ perceptions and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic will contribute to managing and struggling their efforts against COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the perceptions and attitudes of healthcare professionals who are at the forefront in the fight against this pandemic. METHODS: In the study, the survey technique used as the data collection method and 216 participants agreed to participate. The questionnaire consisted of three sections. Reliability analysis and descriptive statistical methods used to analyze the data obtained using the SPSS package program. RESULTS: According to the study results, 80.4%of the participants perceive the probability of being infected with the COVID-19 to be very high, and 64%of them consider that the conditions are very favorable for them to be infected. More than half of them are afraid of being infected and believe that if they contract COVID-19, adverse effects may continue for a long time. Furthermore, almost all participants (96.20%) consider personal protective equipment beneficial and will protect them from the COVID-19 as a wise preventive measure. However, 82.30%of the participants stated that using personal protective equipment is uncomfortable, and 76.60%said it is challenging to take care of patients while using personal protective equipment. CONCLUSIONS: The current study results show that healthcare professionals are aware of how serious COVID-19 is, understand the importance of protective equipment in protection from COVID-19, and are seriously afraid of COVID-19. Given that the fears of healthcare professionals may have adverse effects on them, it is recommended that healthcare administrators take measures to comfort healthcare workers and ensure that they maintain their positive attitude towards COVID-19.