KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES OF NURSES IN INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL

Background: Nurses are health care professionals whose duty it is to protect patients from acquiring infections while hospitalised or while in a health care set up. By maintaining an infection free environment, the patient’s recovery will be promoted and high-quality nursing care will be delivered. Nurses spend most of their time with patients. Therefore, they should have a good level of understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and practices in infection prevention and control in health care setups. The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of nurses regarding infection prevention and control. 

The objectives were to determine:
• The knowledge of nurses in infection prevention and control within a tertiary hospital within Nigeria.
• The attitude of nurses in infection prevention and control within a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.
• The practices of nurses in infection prevention and control within a tertiary hospital in Nigeria and
• To make recommendations to the risk programme and policies of the tertiary hospital within Nigeria. 

Method: A quantitative descriptive study was conducted at a government tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Sample: a Stratified random sampling was performed. A total of n= 196 nurses of all categories (70% from each category) were recruited in the study. Tools of data collection: a self-developed validated close-ended questionnaire guided by hospital policies, procedure standards, World Health Organisation and Nigerian Centres for infection prevention and control, was used to collect data. 

Results: During the main study, n= 196 questionnaires were distributed, n= 196 participants completed the questionnaires, a response rate of 100%. Most of the participants were female; 84.7% (n= 166) while 15.3 % (n= 30) were male. The majority of participants had good knowledge in infection prevention and control with the mean score of 83.21.The attitude towards infection prevention and control was good with the mean score of 81.37.The practice in infection prevention and control was poor with the mean score of 48.88. 

Conclusion: Based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that, despite performing well in knowledge and showing a positive attitude towards infection prevention and control, nurses had unsatisfactory practice levels regarding infection prevention and control, exposing the patients to infection-related diseases. 

Recommendations: Strengthening infection prevention and control practice through regular in-service training/workshop; ensure that members of staff receive appropriate vaccinations regarding infection prevention and control; ensure that resources, e.g. personal protective equipment are available all the time; observing nurses’ practices (hand hygiene auditing and during invasive procedures) and provide feedback. Furthermore, research about the barriers in infection prevention and control practices.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, infection prevention and control