Personal Protective Equipment Use among nurses in Critical Care Unite Nurses. A Comparative Study in Private and Public Sector Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
 Objectives:
 Communicable respiratory illness is an important cause of morbidity among nurses. One of the key reasons for occupational transmission of this illness is the failure to implement appropriate barrier precautions, particularly facial protection and other personnel protective equipment. This study is to see the magnitude, implications and significance of assessment, comparison of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the use of personal protective equipment of critical care unite among nurses and to assess their learning need.
 Methodology:
 Quantitative descriptive cross sectional study design was used in this study. Total of 123 critical care unite nurses participated in this study. Likert scale was used to assess the knowledge attitude and practice of critical care unite nurse. The questionnaire consists of 27 items regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). There are 3 subscales namely, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice.
 Results:
 The findings showed that almost 93.5% nurses have good knowledge about PPE while 6.5% have poor, whereas 95% of participants show positive response regarding the use of PPE at work place while 5% have showed negative attitude toward the use of PPE. Finally regarding practices total of 40% have good practice, 50% have average and remaining 10% percent have poor practice of using PPE.
 Conclusion:
 The use of personal protective equipment reduces the hospital acquire infection and it reduce overall mortality rate as well as it reduce hospital stay of patients. In this study we have found that critical care unite nurse have positive attitude towards the usage of personal protective equipment and nurses have showed satisfactory level attitude regarding the use of personal protective equipment.
 Keywords: personal protective equipment, Nurse, knowledge, attitude and practice.