Perception of Nurses towards Transmittability and Psychosocial Effects of Managing Patients During Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: The magnitude of COVID 19 outbreak in Nigeria has posed serious psychological and social raucous on nurses and midwives. The unusual outbreak of the infectious disease and lack of PPE, and strategies for managing infected and uninfected patient simultaneously calls for future preparedness for pandemics. Objective: To determine the perception of nurses towards transmutability and psychosocial effects of managing patients during covid-19 pandemic. Specifically on the transmutability, nurse’s perception, psychological and social effect outbreak epidemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Self-structure questionnaires were administered through an online google form and three hundred and six (306) were valid for analysis. Results: Almost (96.7%) of the participants perceived spread of COVID 19 correctly, as they point out that the virus can be contacted through hospital transmission and (94.4% of them perceived that it is also transmitted through contact routes. The psychological effect about COVID 19 (73.9%) them feel unprotected during this outbreak of COVID-19, and (73.5) experience feeling of anxiety while attending to patients during the pandemic. More than half (86.9) of the participants depict that their communal interaction was affected, and (70.3) attest that there was emotional distress during the outbreak. Conclusion: The studied participants in this study have correct perception about transmission of COVID 19. Feeling of unprotected, lack of PPE, lack of communal interaction, emotional distress and anxiety were the psychosocial challenges experience when managing patient during the outbreak. Effort should be strengthened to provide more isolation centres, procurement of PPE, personal hygiene utilities should be made available in the hospitals and adoption inclusive barrier nursing method. This perhaps will help to manage future epidemics.