Abstract
Introduction: Since COVID-19 been declared as a pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020, it has been spreading rapidly worldwide leading to devastating consequences and puts healthcare providers including maternal healthcare (MHC) workers at high risk. Therefore, the healthcare authorities worldwide have already initiated awareness and preparedness activities, as poor understanding of the disease may result in delayed treatment and rapid spread of the infection. MHC workers including doctors, nurses and midwives, are among healthcare workers that serve on the front lines during this COVID-19 pandemic in the efforts to detect, control, and stop the spread of the disease in order to provide well-prepared obstetric services. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of obstetric services` preparedness among MHC during this COVID-19 pandemic in the government hospitals in Selangor.
Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among MHC workers (doctors, nurses and midwives) in the government hospitals in Selangor between May 2022 till June 2022. About 409 respondents participated who were selected by proportionate stratified random sampling method. Data collection was done through dissemination of the validated questionnaire (Google form) via WhatsApp application. The questionnaire was prepared in dual language (Malay and English). The data were analysed by using the SPSS version 28 to explore the distribution and association between the knowledge, awareness, attitude and obstetric services preparedness during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Result: The majority of the respondents were nurses and midwives (87.5%), female (98.5%), aged 35 years old and above (65.6%), and with working experience of more than 5 years (92.7%). Most of them worked >45 hours per week (64.9%) and had working shifts per month >25 shifts (75.6%). About 85.1% of them work in hospitals in the urban area. The most frequent sources of information about COVID-19 were obtained from their workplaces (50.9%). Most of the respondents (59.2%) had previous outbreak experiences. The mean score for knowledge and awareness was 14.20±1.66, for attitude was 8.17±2.87, and for obstetric services preparedness was 25.93±4.87. The majority of 378 respondents (92.2%) had good knowledge and awareness, and 362 respondents (88.3%) had a good level of obstetric services preparedness. However, only about half (54%) of the respondents had a positive attitude towards COVID-19. After examining and testing all factors that may affect the level of obstetric services preparedness by controlling the confounding factors through multivariate analysis (multiple logistic regression), the finding showed that the female gender factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.026), nurse or midwife profession factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.128) and working experience over 5 years factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.159) are predictive factors to obstetric services preparedness during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Discussion: About nearly half (46%) of MHC workers had negative attitude towards COVID-19. This is worrying as attitudes towards this pandemic can influence MHC workers’ preparedness in providing good obstetric services. About 52.6% of the respondents stated that their stress levels are still increasing, 62.1% of them still feel afraid that if infected with COVID-19 will hinder their ability to provide quality obstetric services, 47.2% of them still feel get stigma by society due to their jobs, and 56.5% of them still feel burnout. Recognizing these sources of concerns can enable healthcare leaders and organizations to develop targeted approaches to addressing these concerns and provide specific support to their healthcare workforce.
Links
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-P-76.pdf
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/wpforms/1176-1e04940bb5d885bf8711ed1909[...]
BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH2022-P-76,
title = {Obstetric Services Preparedness Among Maternal Healthcare Workers in Selangor: How ready are they?},
author = {Sumaiyah Isamail and Professor Idayu Badilla Idris},
url = {https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-P-76.pdf
https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/wpforms/1176-1e04940bb5d885bf8711ed19095a89ed/APCPH2022-P-76-0ec413687a7c9edd49ac255bfd6a5403.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-02},
urldate = {2022-08-02},
issue = {7},
abstract = {Introduction: Since COVID-19 been declared as a pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020, it has been spreading rapidly worldwide leading to devastating consequences and puts healthcare providers including maternal healthcare (MHC) workers at high risk. Therefore, the healthcare authorities worldwide have already initiated awareness and preparedness activities, as poor understanding of the disease may result in delayed treatment and rapid spread of the infection. MHC workers including doctors, nurses and midwives, are among healthcare workers that serve on the front lines during this COVID-19 pandemic in the efforts to detect, control, and stop the spread of the disease in order to provide well-prepared obstetric services. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of obstetric services` preparedness among MHC during this COVID-19 pandemic in the government hospitals in Selangor.
Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among MHC workers (doctors, nurses and midwives) in the government hospitals in Selangor between May 2022 till June 2022. About 409 respondents participated who were selected by proportionate stratified random sampling method. Data collection was done through dissemination of the validated questionnaire (Google form) via WhatsApp application. The questionnaire was prepared in dual language (Malay and English). The data were analysed by using the SPSS version 28 to explore the distribution and association between the knowledge, awareness, attitude and obstetric services preparedness during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Result: The majority of the respondents were nurses and midwives (87.5%), female (98.5%), aged 35 years old and above (65.6%), and with working experience of more than 5 years (92.7%). Most of them worked \>45 hours per week (64.9%) and had working shifts per month \>25 shifts (75.6%). About 85.1% of them work in hospitals in the urban area. The most frequent sources of information about COVID-19 were obtained from their workplaces (50.9%). Most of the respondents (59.2%) had previous outbreak experiences. The mean score for knowledge and awareness was 14.20±1.66, for attitude was 8.17±2.87, and for obstetric services preparedness was 25.93±4.87. The majority of 378 respondents (92.2%) had good knowledge and awareness, and 362 respondents (88.3%) had a good level of obstetric services preparedness. However, only about half (54%) of the respondents had a positive attitude towards COVID-19. After examining and testing all factors that may affect the level of obstetric services preparedness by controlling the confounding factors through multivariate analysis (multiple logistic regression), the finding showed that the female gender factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.026), nurse or midwife profession factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.128) and working experience over 5 years factor (R2 Nagelkerke = 0.159) are predictive factors to obstetric services preparedness during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Discussion: About nearly half (46%) of MHC workers had negative attitude towards COVID-19. This is worrying as attitudes towards this pandemic can influence MHC workers’ preparedness in providing good obstetric services. About 52.6% of the respondents stated that their stress levels are still increasing, 62.1% of them still feel afraid that if infected with COVID-19 will hinder their ability to provide quality obstetric services, 47.2% of them still feel get stigma by society due to their jobs, and 56.5% of them still feel burnout. Recognizing these sources of concerns can enable healthcare leaders and organizations to develop targeted approaches to addressing these concerns and provide specific support to their healthcare workforce.
},
howpublished = {published online at https://apcph.cphm.my},
key = {obstetric services, COVID-19, preparedness, maternal, healthcare},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latiff, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.},
keywords = {COVID-19 pandemic, Healthcare, maternal, Obstetric services, preparedness},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}