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The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus

OBJECTIVES: During COVID-19 the re-opening of educational institutes was frequently debated, however with the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, The Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, Pakistan opened its campus for medical and nursing students after more than 6 months of closure. To ensure...

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Autores principales: Mahmood, Sana, Ijaz Haider, Sonia, Shahbaz, Hamna, Noorali, Ali Aahil, Afzal, Noreen, Jiwani, Aziz, Zaki, Samar, Iqbal Khan, Unab, Ajani, Khairulnissa, Tariq, Muhammad, Karmaliani, Rozina, Haider, Adil Hussain
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9538787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36211705
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.962478
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author Mahmood, Sana
Ijaz Haider, Sonia
Shahbaz, Hamna
Noorali, Ali Aahil
Afzal, Noreen
Jiwani, Aziz
Zaki, Samar
Iqbal Khan, Unab
Ajani, Khairulnissa
Tariq, Muhammad
Karmaliani, Rozina
Haider, Adil Hussain
author_facet Mahmood, Sana
Ijaz Haider, Sonia
Shahbaz, Hamna
Noorali, Ali Aahil
Afzal, Noreen
Jiwani, Aziz
Zaki, Samar
Iqbal Khan, Unab
Ajani, Khairulnissa
Tariq, Muhammad
Karmaliani, Rozina
Haider, Adil Hussain
author_sort Mahmood, Sana
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: During COVID-19 the re-opening of educational institutes was frequently debated, however with the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, The Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, Pakistan opened its campus for medical and nursing students after more than 6 months of closure. To ensure gradual resumption of activities on-campus, a combination of interventions was diligently deployed to minimize student infection rates. Scarce literature exists on students' perceptions regarding decisions implemented by university leadership. The aim of the study was to determine the efficacy of these interventions. METHODS: We conducted a convergent, parallel, mixed-methods observational study targeting medical and nursing students. An online questionnaire was disseminated to elicit students' degree of (dis)agreement on a four-point Likert scale. Focused group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to comprehend reasons for (dis)agreement. RESULTS: Total of 183 students responded to questionnaire (59.0% nursing, 67.8% female), 11 FGDs were conducted with 85 students. Interventions with highest agreement were mandatory face masks policy (94.54%), weekly mandated COVID-testing (92.35%) and students' Academic Bubble (91.26%); highest disagreement was for Sehat Check application (41.53%); and stay strong campaign (40.44%). Four themes emerged from FGDs: Effective safety interventions, Safety interventions with limited effectiveness, Utility of Sehat Check Application and Future recommendations for informing policy. CONCLUSION: It is paramount to seek student-feedback at forefront of university re-opening strategy. Clear communication channels are as important as an administrative response system's robustness. Bidirectional communication channels are fundamental and requisite during ever-changing policies and regulations. Engaging student representatives in decision making or implementation processes (such as “pilot” before “roll-out”) would allow any potential issues to be managed early on. Gather real-time anonymous feedback and identify key areas that need further promulgation and those that need to be replaced with more effective ones.
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spelling pubmed-95387872022-10-08 The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus Mahmood, Sana Ijaz Haider, Sonia Shahbaz, Hamna Noorali, Ali Aahil Afzal, Noreen Jiwani, Aziz Zaki, Samar Iqbal Khan, Unab Ajani, Khairulnissa Tariq, Muhammad Karmaliani, Rozina Haider, Adil Hussain Front Public Health Public Health OBJECTIVES: During COVID-19 the re-opening of educational institutes was frequently debated, however with the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, The Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, Pakistan opened its campus for medical and nursing students after more than 6 months of closure. To ensure gradual resumption of activities on-campus, a combination of interventions was diligently deployed to minimize student infection rates. Scarce literature exists on students' perceptions regarding decisions implemented by university leadership. The aim of the study was to determine the efficacy of these interventions. METHODS: We conducted a convergent, parallel, mixed-methods observational study targeting medical and nursing students. An online questionnaire was disseminated to elicit students' degree of (dis)agreement on a four-point Likert scale. Focused group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to comprehend reasons for (dis)agreement. RESULTS: Total of 183 students responded to questionnaire (59.0% nursing, 67.8% female), 11 FGDs were conducted with 85 students. Interventions with highest agreement were mandatory face masks policy (94.54%), weekly mandated COVID-testing (92.35%) and students' Academic Bubble (91.26%); highest disagreement was for Sehat Check application (41.53%); and stay strong campaign (40.44%). Four themes emerged from FGDs: Effective safety interventions, Safety interventions with limited effectiveness, Utility of Sehat Check Application and Future recommendations for informing policy. CONCLUSION: It is paramount to seek student-feedback at forefront of university re-opening strategy. Clear communication channels are as important as an administrative response system's robustness. Bidirectional communication channels are fundamental and requisite during ever-changing policies and regulations. Engaging student representatives in decision making or implementation processes (such as “pilot” before “roll-out”) would allow any potential issues to be managed early on. Gather real-time anonymous feedback and identify key areas that need further promulgation and those that need to be replaced with more effective ones. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9538787/ /pubmed/36211705 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.962478 Text en Copyright © 2022 Mahmood, Ijaz Haider, Shahbaz, Noorali, Afzal, Jiwani, Zaki, Iqbal Khan, Ajani, Tariq, Karmaliani and Haider. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Mahmood, Sana
Ijaz Haider, Sonia
Shahbaz, Hamna
Noorali, Ali Aahil
Afzal, Noreen
Jiwani, Aziz
Zaki, Samar
Iqbal Khan, Unab
Ajani, Khairulnissa
Tariq, Muhammad
Karmaliani, Rozina
Haider, Adil Hussain
The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title_full The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title_fullStr The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title_full_unstemmed The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title_short The impact of COVID-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
title_sort impact of covid-19 safety interventions on creating a controlled environment on campus
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9538787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36211705
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.962478
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