Challenges Facing Nursing Profession in Implementing COVID -19 Infection Prevention and Control Practices in Health Care Settings

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Clinical Instructor, Technical Institute of Nursing, Mansoura University, Egypt

2 Assistant Professor of Medical Surgical Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University, Egypt,

Abstract

Background: Covid 19 is one of the most serious expanding pandemics which affecting all people worldwide. Nurses are
responsible for introducing care to covid 19 patients. There are many challenges facing them during implementation of
covid 19 prevention and control practices related to nurse and work organization Aim: The study aimed to assess
challenges facing nursing profession in implementing covid-19 infection prevention and control practice in health care
settings. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was utilized with convenient sample of 203 nurses from
three different hospital sectors, Mansoura University Hospitals, Ministry of Health Hospitals and Mansoura Health
Insurance Hospital at Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Tools of data collection: Two tools were used in this study, nurses’
knowledge and nurses’ challenges related to covid 19 infection prevention and control practices. Results: More than half
of nurses (54.7%) showed good knowledge levels. The highly most common challenges faced nurses were lack of
personal protective equipment and fear of infecting themselves and other. Conclusion: There are many challenges facing
nurses during implementing covid -19 infection prevention and control practice, the most common challenges were lack
of personal protective equipment and fear of infecting themselves and others. Recommendation: Continuous educational
programs for nursing profession about covid‐19 infection prevention. periodical evaluation for nurses’ performance to
ensure proper adherence to the preventive measures, continuous updating for the nursing education curriculain about
principles of infection prevention and control practices and maintaining availability of necessary resources.

Keywords