Knowledge, Attitudes, and Compliance with Covid-19 Guidelines among Nursing Students at a Medical University in Iran

Abstract

To prevent the spread of Covid-19, healthcare staff require up-to-date knowledge. There is limited information about the level of knowledge, attitudes, and compliance with Covid-19 guidelines among nursing students in Iran. This study aimed to determine knowledge, attitudes, and compliance with Covid-19 guidelines and related factors among nursing students at Guilan University of Medical Sciences in the north of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 190 undergraduate nursing students. Samples were recruited by convenience sampling according to the inclusion criteria. The research instruments included demographic characteristics and knowledge, attitude, and practice towards Covid-19 questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data using SPSS software version 21 with a significant level of 0.05. In this study, 131 (68.9%), 182 (95.8%), and 81 (42.6%) of the study participants had good knowledge, positive attitude, and good compliance with Covid-19 guidelines, respectively. Results showed that the mean scores of knowledge, attitude, and compliance with Covid-19 guidelines were 14.66 (SD=3.03), 30.35 (SD=4.13), and 11.05 (SD=4.00), respectively. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and some demographic characteristics (gender, job, and housing status), between attitude and gender and economic status, and between compliance and gender and academic semester (P<0.05). Managers can use the results of this research to plan and provide arrangements to improve compliance with precaution guidelines during future events similar to Covid-19.