Objective: Universities have interrupted face-to-face education since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Graduates of the 2020 spring semester were mostly concerned as they had to graduate under extraordinary conditions. Moreover, the new graduate physiotherapists are expected to be much more concerned as they also have a risk of close contact with patients with COVID-19 when they are employed. However, their concerns about treating COVID-19 patients have not been assessed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of physiotherapists, who graduated in the spring semester of 2020, toward the patients with COVID-19. Material and Methods: Physiotherapists who graduated in spring 2020 from different universities across Turkey were included in the study. Participants were contacted via telecommunication groups. A questionnaire was developed specifically for this study and its digital form was prepared via Google Forms. The questionnaire consists of 7 questions that assess participants’ concerns about COVID-19 and their attitudes toward these patients. Results: A total of 150 new graduate physiotherapists from 10 universities were included. Twenty percent of the participants were male. The mean age of the participants was 22.7 ± 1.43 years. Forty-three percent of the participants have moderate knowledge of how to approach COVID-19 patients. In addition, 38.7% of the physiotherapists were found to have a moderate level of self-confidence in treating COVID-19 patients and 46.7% of the participants stated that they have little knowledge about the treatment. Conclusion: This study showed that most of the new graduate physiotherapists feel that they do not have enough knowledge about how to approach those with COVID-19 and would avoid treating them. This result would be a consequence of the novelty of the virus and, thus, the lack of education about its treatment. We think that as our knowledge about this novel virus increases, the hesitating behavior of health care professionals would disappear. © 2022 Archives of Health Science and Research. All rights reserved.
The Attitudes of New Graduate Physiotherapists Toward the Patients with COVID-19