level of self-care and patient care against covid-19 among emergency medical services personnel; a cross-sectional study

Introduction: provision of pre-hospital care by emergency medical services (ems) requires paying attention to self-care and patient care against possible infections. the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the level of self-care and patient care against covid-19. methods: the present correlational, descriptive, analytical study was carried out on 301 ems personnel in iran. data were collected using a demographic information form and questionnaires made by the researcher on the level of self-care and patient care against covid-19. results: the results showed that more than half of the participants (55%) were aged 27 to 34 years. the majority of the participants had an experience of participating in self-care (88.7%) and patient care (83.7%) training courses against covid-19. the overall score of self-care was 55.96 ± 6.97 out of 72 and that of patient care was 26.86± 3.39 out of 32, both of which revealed a favorable level. however, in some questions, the mean score was lower than the optimal level. the lowest mean score among items related to self-care against covid-19 was allocated to wearing protective clothing (1.77±1.19). among items related to patient care against covid-19, the lowest mean score was related to training the patient about hand hygine after touching contaminated equipment (2.83±1.08 out of 4). there was a positive (r=0.491) and significant correlation between self-care and patient care against covid-19 (p=0.001) based on our findings. conclusion: although the general level of self-care and patient care against covid-19 was favorable, due to the undesired level of some domains, it seems necessary to implement corrective planning through periodical training and monitoring the performance of the personnel.