Aydın Journal of Health

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this research is to determine the level of professional knowledge and the behaviours of new healthcare workers in Covid-19 process.
Methods: It is a retrospective and descriptive study conducted with the data obtained from the general compliance training (theoretical and practical) given to 28 new healthcare workers who had started working at a pandemic hospital affiliated to the Ministry of Health between 17-21 April 2020. The data were obtained by "Personal Information Form", "Pre-test", "Final test", "Training Evaluation Form" and "Counselling Follow-up Form of Nursing Services in Covid-19 Process" developed by the researchers in the light of the literature. The data obtained from the evaluation of the data were transferred to the computer environment and analysed in IBM SPSS 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York) package program. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) were used in the analysis of the data. The compatibility of numerical data to normal distribution was assessed by Q-Q plot and Kolmogorov - Smirnov test. Wilcoxon test was used to analyse the data. ICC (Intraclass correlation coefficient) was used for the assessors agreement and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for the reliability analysis of the scales. The results were evaluated at 95% confidence interval and significance was evaluated at p <0.05 level.
Results: The mean age of the nurses included in the study was 23.32 ± 1.51 years, 20 (71.4%) were female, 16 (57.1%) had a bachelor’s degree, 75 (75%) were nurses and the average work experience was 0.69 ± 0.86 years. Differences between individual pre-test and final test changes according to gender, educational status and occupational groups were found to be statistically significant (p<0,05). It was seen that qualifications specific to the trainers came to the fore in the evaluation of the training. As a result of the 1st week evaluation performed by 2 nurse consultants (charge nurse and chief nurse) using the Counselling Form of Nursing Services in Covid-19 Process, the consistency between the consultants was found to be statistically significant (p<0,05). It was determined that the mean distribution of the assessors in the 1st and the 2nd week was 75.63 ± 19.03 and 87.28 ± 12.30, respectively, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.96 and 0.88, respectively, and the difference in the mean scores of the assessors within two weeks was found to be statistically significant (Wilcoxon test; p=0,001). It was concluded that the newly recruited healthcare personnel paid attention to and practiced hand hygiene the most, complied with the unit's working hours, and performed patient care practices.
Conclusions: It was identified that the healthcare workers included in the study were young female nurses with a bachelor's degree and little work experience. Individual pre-test and final test differences according to gender, educational status and occupational groups and the final test scores of men and women being higher than the pre-test scores were found to be statistically significant (p<0,05; p=0,012; p=0,0001). It was concluded that the most positive result in the training evaluation was "Trainer". In the 1st week, the score concordance between the consultants was found to be 0.96 and the Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.95 and 0.98. In the 2nd week, Cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.94 and 0.96 and the consistency between the consultants was statistically significant (p<0,05). It was determined that the difference in the mean scores of the assessors within two weeks was statistically significant (p=0,001). It was concluded that the newly recruited healthcare personnel paid attention to and practiced hand hygiene the most, complied with the unit's working hours, and performed patient care practices. General Compliance Training given to new healthcare workers who had started working at a pandemic hospital during Covid-19 process has had a positive impact on nursing care with an increase in their knowledge and skills.