KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICE OF NURSES CARING FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS REGARDING SELF-MEDICATION WITH ANTI-ANXIETY DRUGS

Nurses are at the forefront of care for Covid-19 patients. Continuous care and direct contact with patients with Covid-19, fear of infection, death, and uncertain future cause nurses stress and anxiety. On the other hand, due to their familiarity with psychiatric drugs, nurses sometimes treat themselves to escape anxiety. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of arbitrary use of anti-anxiety drugs in nurses exposed to Covid-19 patients.

This descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out by selecting 300 nurses working in isolated corona wards in Urmia Teaching Hospitals using quota sampling method. Demographic information questionnaire and a questionnaire for evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and practice of the nurses for arbitrary use of anti-anxiety drugs were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods. A significance level of less than 0.05 was considered as significant for all statistical analyzes.

In this study, the mean score of attitude, practice, and knowledge of the nurses participating in this study was 18.93±7.245 (from an obtainable range of 11-55), 20.54±5.476 (from an obtainable range of 10-50), and 34.06 ±5.586 (from an obtainable range of 10-50), respectively. Also, the results of correlation tests showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between attitude and practice (r = 0.612, p <0.001) and also between knowledge and practice (r = 0.191, p <0.001). In addition, multiple linear regression showed that attitude and knowledge could predict 47.8% and 51.7% of performance, respectively.

The findings of this study showed high knowledge, negative attitude, and relatively poor practice of nurses working in isolated coronary wards about the of arbitrary use of anti-inflammatory drugs. In addition, the results of this study showed that knowledge and attitude are related to nurses' performance in the field of self-medication and can predict it. Therefore, it is suggested that raising knowledge and improving nurses' attitudes toward self-medication be used to minimize arbitrary drug use.