The Associated Factors with Performance for Prevention of Blood-borne Infection among Operating Room Nurses

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to find the factors associated with performance of blood-borne infection prevention. Methods: The study subjects were 204 operating room nurses from 23 hospitals in G metropolitan city. The data were collected with self-reported questionnaire, and the used statistical methods of analysis were t-test, ANOVA with post-hoc test, Pearson’s correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results: Of the subjects, 41.2% was exposed to the patients’ blood during the surgery. As for the awareness and performance of blood-borne infection prevention, the mean scores of subjects were 107.4 ± 10.8 and 100.6 ± 13.3, respectively. The results of multiple regression analysis suggested that as the awareness of blood-borne infection prevention increased (β = 0.6, p < 0.001), participation in surgery after the confirmation of infection test results (β = 4.1, p = 0.042) and hospital’s training for infection control (β = 3.4, p = 0.040) increased the performance of blood-born infection prevention, whereas experiences in being exposed to blood significantly decreased the performance of blood-borne infection prevention (β = -5.5, p < 0.001). Conclusions: It is essential that hospitals prepare aggressive and effective management measures for preventing blood-borne infection and operating room nurses make individual efforts to recognize and perform infection control well despite the limited conditions of the hospitals where they are working. Key words: Awareness, Blood-borne infection, Infection control, Nurses, Performance