A staff questionnaire study of MRSA infection on ENT and general surgical wards

The multidrug-resistant bacteria attitude questionnaire: validity and understanding of responsibility for infection control in Swedish registered district, haematology and infection nurses

AIM

To assess the discriminative and construct validity of the Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire and to study registered nurses' knowledge of, behaviour toward and emotional responses to patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria in relation to how they understand their own, managers' and politicians' responsibility for adherence to preventive measures for infection control.

BACKGROUND

Multidrug-resistant organisms are a global problem and an essential topic in healthcare regarding patient safety improvement.

DESIGN

Descriptive and correlational cross-sectional survey.

METHOD

Data were collected in a non-random sample consisting of 397 registered nurses; district, haematology or infection registered nurses. One-way analysis of variance and independent t-tests were used for comparisons and a principal component analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Discriminative and construct validity were supported, as the infection registered nurses generally had higher scores on knowledge, behaviour and emotional response, compared with district registered nurses and haematology registered nurses and the three-factor solution was confirmed. Registered nurses with higher scores on knowledge and emotional response attributed greater responsibility to themselves and to politicians. The Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire was translated using a forward-back translation process.

CONCLUSION

The questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties. Insufficient knowledge of, behaviour toward and emotional response to patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria were described, but the registered nurses did estimate their own responsibility for adherence to preventive measures for infection control as being great or very great.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

There is a considerable need to improve knowledge, behaviour and emotional response regarding infection prevention measures among healthcare workers. The hospital management are responsible for such improvements and the Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire is useful in identifying such needs, as it has adequate psychometric properties and is able to discriminate between groups. Evaluation among healthcare workers may indicate where to situate additional training, as this is of clinical significance for safe care.

Attitudes toward patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria: scale development and psychometric evaluation

There is a need for validated assessment tools for measuring attitudes towards patients with multid-rug-resistant bacteria. Such an assessment tool was developed and psychometrically evaluated in the present study. A literature review and discussions with experts and key informants were used to develop the questionnaire. To ensure item adequacy and interpretability, face validity and pre-tests were performed. Item validity, content validity and internal consistency reliability were evaluated in a non-random sample of 329 hemodialysis nurses. The psychometric properties were satisfactory, indicating good item validity. The content validity revealed three appropriate factors with good internal consistency reliability. The haemodialysis nurses′ knowledge about multidrug-resistant bacteria was not sufficient, and their intentional behaviour was unsatisfactory with respect to infection control precautions. The multidrug-resistant bacteria Attitude Questionnaire would be a valuable tool, in nursing practice and nursing education, in promoting quality improvements in patient safety with regard to healthcare associated infections.