The Impact of Training of Medical Students on COVID-19: Goa Medical College February 2020

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infection caused by a newly found strain of coronavirus which is now named as SARS CoV- 2. Since there is no cure yet against this deadly disease, preventive measures remains the mainstay till date. Healthcare workers being the frontline workers in this pandemic need to have adequate knowledge about the disease to tackle and revert this pandemic. Thus the present study aimed to assess the impact of training sessions on knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19 among undergraduate MBBS students in Goa Medical College. Method: The present study was a descriptive study carried out using the pre-test and post-test questionnaire that was collected during the COVID-19 training held for first year MBBS students of Goa Medical College. EpiData 3.1 was used for entry of the data. The results were analysed using SPSS software version 22. Result: A total of 161 MBBS students participated in the study. It was seen that knowledge regarding various aspects of COVID-19 like the new nomenclature of the novel virus (28%), symptoms (42%), mode of spread (78.9%), and concept of social distancing (50.3%) was poor among the students which improved significantly after the training session. Conclusion: With more and more ongoing researches on COVID-19 worldwide, new updates will get added to its epidemiology with time. Health care workers being the frontline workers need to keep themselves updated with the latest knowledge. Regular training sessions can enlighten the health care providers with the much needed updates which will further help to improve their skills in prevention and management of COVID-19.