An assessment of pandemic risk perception among healthcare personnel in teaching hospitals in Rivers State, Nigeria

Background: Healthcare staff face numerous challenges, placing them at risk of contracting the infection. The study investigated how health staff at Rivers State teaching hospitals regarded the pandemic's health threats.Materials and Methods: This study involved healthcare workers (HCW) from teaching hospitals in Rivers State, Nigeria. To attract healthcare personnel, a multi-stage sampling technique was implemented. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to investigate health workers' views of pandemic risk. We employed a pretested standardized questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaire for this study, and the result was 0.72, which is significant. The data gathered from participants was entered and analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25. The University of Port Harcourt's Research and Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for the experiment.Results: The majority of interviewees (86.6%) acknowledged the risk of pandemics. There was a significant association between age (p=0.0001), marital status (p=0.014), sex (p=0.0001), tribe (p=0.001), religion (p=0.033), income (p=0.0001), professional category (p=0.0001), employment duration (p=0.023), and risk perception.Conclusion: Healthcare personnel that took part in the study rated the risk of pandemics as high. During pandemics, teaching hospital administrators must ensure that health staff have a sufficient and appropriate working environment.