RISK OF ON JOB NON COMPLIANCE TOWARDS VARIOUS COVID-19 STANDARD & TRANSMISSION BASED INFECTION PREVENTION & CONTROL MEASURES/PRECAUTIONS AMONG THE HEALTHCARE WORKS WORKING IN OPD SETTINGs OF PUBLIC SECTOR TERTIORY CARE HOSPITALS OF QUETTA BALOCHISTAN

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackgroundCOVID-19 Pandemic is still circulating within the human population and proving to be a deadlier disease with mortality rate ranging from 0.5 to 7%8. Since COVID-19 is a highly transmissible disease; there is always a probability for its out ward spread towards general public and community from the hospitals and healthcare facilities where they come to seek treatment.MethodologyA prospective cohort study design was used, considering the limited available resources and time __ A total of 200 healthcare workers (Including Doctors, Nurses, Para-Medical staff, Janitorial staff, Reception staff & Pharmacists) working in the OPDs of the two major Public sector hospitals of Quetta were made part of this study. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. The study participants from “Hospital-A” were first of all educated and trained on various COVID-19 IPC measures later on various COVID-19-IEC materials; written in simple Urdu language, were displayed clearly everywhere in the OPD. Similarly hand washing station along with Hand sanitizers/Soaps and surgical face masks were also made available free of cost for all the study participants of Hospital-A. More over the importance and effectiveness of COVID-19 IPC measures were continuously announced in the OPD gallery of Hospital-A, these announcements used Simple wording in local languages (i.e. Urdu, Pashto, Balochi & Brahvi). On the other hand in the OPD of “Hospital-B” no such interventions were made. The study participants of both the hospitals were followed for one month and observations like-which group showed more on-job non compliance towards various COVID-19 IPC measures were recorded. The data was recorded on daily bases (From 1stMay-to-31stMay 2021) after observing the study participants and checklist was used for recording various findings. Lastly all the data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 version.ResultsThe major findings of this study are almost in line with the set objectives, the study results are clearly showing the Risk ratio (R.R) as 0.27, indicating that the intervention group participants were only 27% as likely to develop On-job non-compliance for various COVID-19 IPC measures compare to the non-intervention group.ConclusionThe best suggestion and intervention for the developing countries that could at least address the spread of COVID-19 in a cost effective manner at health facility levels remains to be adoption of various Standard and Transmission based non-pharmacological measures of Infection prevention and Control (IPC)5.