Knowledge, attitude, and practices of ward attendant and housekeeping staffs towards dead body care of COVID-19 patients at tertiary care hospital : A cross sectional study

BackgroundHealthcare workers worked untiringly during entire pandemic period and taken efforts to protect individuals, families and communities in adverse situations with stretched resources. Among health care workers role of ward attendant and housekeeping staffs have been very significant particularly in infection control practices and dead body management. Present studys aim is to gain an understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of ward attendant and housekeeping staffs towards dead body management. MethodsHospital-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among ward attendant and housekeeping staffs working in COVID units. A total of 62 participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Binary logistic regression model was used to see association between outcome and independent variables. ResultPresent study found mean knowledge, attitude and practice score of participants were 6.1, 49.9 and 12.28 indicates good knowledge, positive attitude and inappropriate practice towards dead body care. Study result also shows that odds of good knowledge were not significantly associated with demographic variables. However, the participants who didnt receive any training on dead body care were found to have positive attitude towards dead body care(AOR=3.90,95%CI=1.092-13.92), whereas gender (AOR=1.85,95%CI=.430-7.96), working experience in COVID units (AOR=99.5,95%CI=.913-98.8) and educational qualification (AOR=30.33,95%CI=1.5-577) were significantly associated with practice of dead body care of COVID-19 patients. ConclusionThe study found that majority of participants were having good knowledge, positive attitude and inappropriate practice towards dead body care of COVID-19 patients. Hospital administration should conduct regular training of dead body care of COVID-19 patients for all the housekeeping staffs and ward attendant to minimise the risk of exposure to infections and better management of dead bodies.