Knowledge and practice of nurses regarding standard precautions in a tertiary care public hospital, North India

Abstract

Background: Hospital-acquired infections could occur as a result of lapses in accepted standards of practice on the part of health care personnel (HCP). All individuals, particularly HCPs, are potentially at high risk of infection due to their frequent exposure. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practices of nurses regarding standard precautions at a tertiary care hospital, North India.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, Uttarakhand enrolling 134 nurses purposively from different units of the institute. Data was collected using a pre-structured self-administered questionnaire to seek information on participants’ knowledge and practices regarding standard precautions. SPSS version-23 was used to analyse the findings. Descriptive statistics were applied for the analysis of the results.Results: The mean age of the participants was 27.52±2.93 years, with more than half of the respondents were males (58.21%), and (41.79%) were females. Almost 60.45% had three or fewer years of work experience. Most respondents preferred hand hygiene (97.01%) and the use of PPE (88.06%). Almost 94.03% of participants favored disinfection of frequently touched surfaces. Regarding the practices, 95.52% answered that the right hand-washing is before wearing gloves, after removing the gloves, and after leaving the patient’s care area. About 98.51% of them answered that bio-medical waste should be discarded in the right type of color-coded bins.Conclusions: Findings suggested adequate knowledge and compliance among nurses regarding standard precautions. However, specific training programs may be conducted to attain full adherence to standard precautions. These programs can enhance their awareness and can work as a vital tool to achieve the desired improvement in knowledge and practices of standard precautions.