Risk Perception and Willingness of Medical Students in North East Nigeria to Participate in Mitigating COVID 19 Pandemic

Background: The recent COVID 19 pandemic has negatively affected health care systems in developed and developing countries. The weak health systems in Nigeria with low Human Resource for Health (HRH) poses a threat to mitigating this pandemic with the rising number of COVID 19 cases in the country. It is therefore necessary to consider measures to improve on the availability of human resources in the health sector.

Methodology: The study was a cross sectional study which studied 475 medical students from four medical colleges across the North Eastern region. The close group whats-app platform for selected schools and classes were used to obtain information on the knowledge, perception and willingness to assist in providing health care services during this pandemic.

Results: Majority of the respondents had good knowledge and perception on COVID 19 (80.4% and 96% respectively). In addition, 78.3% of the respondents felt that they were at risk of becoming infected, however 93% of them stated that they were willing to assist in providing health care services during this pandemic. Parental disapproval and fear of becoming infected were the reasons given for those who were unwilling to be involved in provision of health care during this period. More male respondents (67.3%) were willing to participate in providing health care service during the pandemic compared to 32.7% of females and this was statistically significant with a p-value of <0.001.

Conclusion: This study has shown that majority of medical students in the North East have a good knowledge and perception on COVID 19 and are willing to assist in providing health services if needed during the COVID 19 Pandemic. These services could be specific low risk tasks and responsibilities which lie predominantly with prevention of COVID 19 in the region. Their willingness should be regarded as a great sacrifice to humanity and could go a long way in bridging the gap of low HRH in this region.