Background: COVID-19 pandemic affected the global population,
and infection
is a high risk
among nurses in the gastrointestinal endoscopy unit. Endoscopy is a diagnostic
procedure that
involves inserting a flexible fiber-optic tube into the esophagus, stomach, or upper small intestine,
depending on the degree of suspected lesions. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of
educational guidelines intervention regarding COVID -19 on nurses' knowledge and precautionary
practices in gastrointestinal (GIT) endoscopes. Design: A quasi-experimental design was used.
Setting: The study was carried out at the gastrointestinal endoscopy unit affiliated with General
Portsaid Hospitals (Al-Mabarrah Hospital, Al-Amiri Hospital, Al-Zohour Hospital, Port Fouad
Hospital, and Al-Tadamon Hospital). Sample: The study included a convenient sample of all
endoscopy nursing personnel (30 nurses). Three tools for data collection: (1) Demographic
structured interview sheet, (2) Nurses' Covid-19 Knowledge Questionnaire, and (3) Nurses' Covid-
19 Precautionary Practices Checklists. Results: More than one-third of the studied nurses received
training courses regarding COVID-19 before. Almost three-quarters of the studied nurses reported
that their main source of information about knowledge regarding COVID-19 was doctors. There
was an improvement with a highly statistically significant difference between nurse's knowledge
regarding COVID -19 pre/post one month of educational intervention (P<0.001), with improved
their precautionary practices score after one month. A statistically significant positive relation was
found between the total mean score of studied nurses' COVID-19 knowledge and precautionary
practice one month after the educational intervention. Conclusion: The study concluded that
educational guidelines intervention for nurses in the GIT endoscopy unit greatly helps in improving
COVID-19 levels of knowledge and precautionary practices with significant differences
immediately and two months following an educational guidelines intervention. Recommendation:
Continues designing and implementation in-service training program for nurses in the GIT
endoscopy unit to improve their knowledge and precautionary practices