Abstract
Health Sciences students are exposed early to hospitals and to activities which increase their risk of acquiring infections. Infection control practices are geared towards reduction of occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases. To evaluate knowledge and attitudes of infection prevention and control among Health Science students at University of Namibia. To assess students' knowledge and attitudes regarding infection prevention and control and their sources of information, a self-administered questionnaire was used to look at standard precautions especially hands hygiene. One hundred sixty two students participated in this study of which 31 were medical, 17 were radiography and 114 were nursing students. Medical students had better overall scores (73%) compared to nursing students (66%) and radiology students (61%). There was no significant difference in scores between sexes or location of the high school being either in rural or urban setting. Serious efforts are needed to improve or review curriculum so that health sciences students' knowledge on infection prevention and control is imparted early before they are introduced to the wards.
Highlights
Poor hospital hygiene has been widely publicized, including patients’ concerns about safety in hospitals
The first part collected demographics of the students and the second part evaluated whether the current infection control and practices were in line with standard precautions recommended by World Health Organization (WHO).[7]
A total of 162 health sciences students in their 2nd or 3rd year of study participated in this study among which 114 Nursing students, 31 were Medical students and 17 were radiographers
Summary
Poor hospital hygiene has been widely publicized, including patients’ concerns about safety in hospitals. Health Sciences students are exposed early to the hospitals and to activities which increase their risk of acquiring and transmitting infections. These diseases are usually caused by bacteria or viruses and can be spread from health worker to patient or vice versa through contact - human contact with an infected surface, airborne transmission through droplets and/or aerosols and, by common vehicles as food or water. Health Sciences students are exposed early to hospitals and to activities which increase their risk of acquiring infections. Medical students had better overall scores (73%) compared to nursing students (66%) and radiology students (61%).
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