A Descriptive Study to Assess the Knowledge and Practice on Personal Protective Equipment among Student Nurses in a Selected College of Nursing, New Delhi

Abstract

Personal Protective equipment is also called PPE. It is commonly worn by health care workers to prevent the transmission of infection. PPE includes helmets or caps, face shields, face masks, goggles, gowns, respirators, shoe covers or boots and gloves. These protective coverings will be effective when it is being used in an appropriate manner. The main objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge and practice on Personal Protective Equipment among student nurses. A Quantitative Research approach along with Descriptive Research design was used. A total of 110 student nurses were selected through Convenient Sampling Technique from DGNM 3rd Year, B.Sc. (Hons.) Nursing 2nd Year and B.Sc. (Hons.) Nursing 4th Year of Rufaida College of Nursing, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi in the month of July-August 2020. Structured Questionnaire was used via an online platform (Google forms) due to Covid 19 lockdown to assess the knowledge and practice on PPE. Out of 110 samples, 66 (60%) had good knowledge, followed by 44 (40%) having average knowledge and none were having poor knowledge on PPE, whereas 67 (60.9%) had an average practice, followed by 41 (37.3%) having good practice and only 2 (1.8%) had poor practice on PPE. Findings suggest that there is a need for practice-based knowledge assessment in clinical areas and thus improvement in the practice of PPE while working in hospitals.