Although various initiatives have been implemented by Government of India towards eradicating viral hepatitis, sudden surge in COVID-19 cases has hampered the goal of viral hepatitis program related activities. Besides, as COVID-19 is associated with various liver related complications, special precautions are needed to manage patients with existing liver diseases. It has been observed that nurses have a crucial part to play in the management of any disease. Nevertheless, the knowledge among nurses on co-management of COVID-19 and viral hepatitis is still scarce. Therefore, a two-day training program for nursing professionals was formed under the project PRAKASH to educate and train the nurses about co-management of COVID-19 and viral hepatitis.        

The authors included a pre-post study among nurses who have registered for hepatitis update program. The online link to 25-knowledge related questions along with demographic variables was shared with the registered nurses. Paired t test and other statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS v-21.

The study concluded that implementing training programs are imperative for nurses to encourage them for the management of diseases, holding public health importance and it becomes more crucial in regard to increasing burden of co-infected COVID-19 and viral hepatitis cases.

Source: International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences. Available at: https://www.msjonline.org/index.php/ijrms/article/view/9848