Knowledge of infection control practices among intensive care nurses in a tertiary care hospital

• Main Authors: Kanwalpreet Sodhi (Author), Anupam Shrivastava (Author), Muktanjali Arya (Author), Manender Kumar (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Elsevier, 2013-08-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1876-0341; 10.1016/j.jiph.2013.02.004
• Keywords: Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Journal of Infection and Public Health, Vol 6, Iss 4, Pp 269-275 (2013)

Summary: Background: The threat of hospital-acquired infections persists despite advances in the health care system. A lack of knowledge regarding infection control practices among health care workers decreases compliance with these practices. We conducted a study to assess the knowledge of infection control practices among nursing professionals at our hospital. Methods: In total, 100 nurses in the intensive care units at our hospital were given a questionnaire with 40 multiple choice questions, including 10 questions each regarding hand hygiene, standard and transmission-based precautions, care bundles and general infection control practices. The responses were scored as percentages. Results: The overall knowledge and awareness regarding different infection control practices were excellent (>90% positive responses) in 5% of the nursing professionals, good (80-90% positive responses) in 37%, average (70-80% positive responses) in 40% and below average (<70% positive responses) in 18%. Conclusion: The infection control knowledge among the nurses was fairly good; however, there is still a wide scope of improvement with regular educational programs and in-house training. Keywords: Infection control, Hand hygiene, Standard and transmission-based precautions, Care bundles