Preparedness for anthrax attack: the effect of knowledge on the willingness to treat patients |
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| Authors: | Ariel Rokach Robert Cohen Naomi Shapira Shmuel Einav Alex Mandibura Yaron Bar‐Dayan |
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| Institution: | 1. Coordinator of NBC Hospital, Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command Medical Department;2. Head of the Center of Medical Education, Hadassah Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem;3. Research Fellows in the Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Beer‐Sheva;4. Chief Medical Officer of the Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command Medical Department and is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Beer‐Sheva, Israel. |
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| Abstract: | Little is known about the factors that may impact on the willingness of physicians and nurses to treat patients during a bioterrorism attack. This survey was conducted among 76 randomly selected nurses and physicians in the emergency rooms of three public hospitals in order to analyse the relationship between knowledge, profession and the willingness to treat anthrax. The study finds that the willingness of physicians and nurses to come to work is 50% greater among the group with the highest knowledge about anthrax (P < 0.0001). Within that group, the willingness to treat patients suspected of being infected with anthrax was 37% greater (P < 0.0001) and the willingness to treat patients diagnosed with anthrax was 28% greater (P = 0.004) than in the other groups. These results imply that enhancement of knowledge among health care workers may improve their willingness to come to work and treat patients infected with anthrax during a bioterrorism attack. |
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| Keywords: | anthrax knowledge terrorism willingness to treat |
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