THE SURGICAL MASK WEARING BEHAVIOR TO PREVENT AND CONTROL THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SITUATION AMONG NURSING STAFF IN THE TERTIARY CARE OF THAILAND

The COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. A new corona virus was discovered in 2019. The virus is thought to spread mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. The objective of this study was to explore the surgical mask wearing behaviour and investigate the factors relationship with surgical mask wearing behaviour to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic among nursing staff in the tertiary care of Thailand. This study was a survey research recruiting 206nursing staff worked in the tertiary care between January to May 2021 by purposive random sampling. The data were collected using the online structural questionnaire consisted of 5 parts. Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient. The result revelated that the majority of the samples had a high level of surgical mask wearing behaviour (89.9%). Factors which remained significantly associated with surgical mask wearing behaviour were attitude about surgical mask wearing (p<0.001).The finding suggests that the administrators should focus on attitude about surgical mask wearing and impose a policy or guidance for changing the appropriate behaviour of surgical mask wearing behaviour to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic among nursing staff and all of the physician in the hospital.