Awareness and Performance of Paramedics in Preventing toward Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
(MERS), wearing of protective equipment and the performance in preventing MERS infection among
paramedics and analyze correlations. The survey was conducted on 96 active paramedics in K city, South
Korea. The data were analyzedusing the SPSS 21.0 programusing descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way
ANOVA, Scheffe test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
Through this analysis, it was found that higher knowledge of MERS resulted in higher scores in the actions
to prevent infection. As such, it is necessary to raise the infection control performance of paramedics by
reflecting strategies for ‘preparedness’ rather than ‘response’ in the training on MERS, which must focus on
knowledge and infection prevention.