Acidentes de trabalho entre os trabalhadores de uma universidade pública

Knowledge and compliance with standard precautions among registered nurses: A cross-sectional study

Background

Nurses and patients are often exposed to various types of infections during their clinical practice. Knowledge and compliance with standard precautions are essential to prevent hospitals associated infections and protect patients as well as medical workers from exposure to infectious agents.

Aims

This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, level of compliance, and associated factors toward compliance with standard precautions among registered nurses in the North of Jordan.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted at three hospitals in the North of Jordan. Two were public hospitals and one was a university-affiliated hospital. A questionnaire concerning the knowledge and compliance with the standard precaution guidelines was distributed among 300 registered nurses of whom 266 completed the questionnaire (response rate 88.7%).

Results

53% of the participants were from governmental hospitals and 57.1% were females. The age median of them was 30 years (IQR = 28–32). The majority of the participants were medical/surgical RNs (33.1%) while only 8.3% of them were from the pediatric/gynecology departments. The overall knowledge score was 16.27 (SD = 3.15), and the total compliance score was 49.15 (SD = 12.36). Besides, the study showed a moderate positive correlation between the level of knowledge, experience in years, and the standard precautions compliance (r = 0.387, p = 0.01), (r = 0.341, p = 0.01), respectively.

Conclusions

standard precautions are the basic level of the infection control process. The participants may possess satisfactory knowledge and compliance levels. However, more training programs and more focusing on the standard precautions by educational institutes are needed for nurses to improve their knowledge and compliance with infection-control standard precautions.

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Knowledge and compliance with standard precaution guidelines are essential during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Nurses from Jordan may possess satisfactory knowledge and compliance levels.

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More training programs and more focusing on the standard precautions by nurses' educational institutes is needed.

Instruments for evaluating compliance with infection control practices and factors that affect it: an integrative review

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To search for instruments to measure compliance with infection control practices and to report on which dimensions and contents the instruments evaluate, their psychometric characteristics, compliance and factors influencing compliance.

BACKGROUND

Low compliance with infection control practices has been reported among healthcare professionals around the world over the years. Existing data concerning health professionals' compliance with standard precautions are based on measuring instruments.

DESIGN

Integrative review.

METHODS

The descriptors were identified and used separately and in combination to search in the following databases: Lilacs, PubMed (MEDLINE), ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus and CINAHL. The selected articles complied with inclusion and exclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Twenty-three studies were analysed, resulting in the identification of 18 instruments. No instrument addressed all compliance topics, and the most commonly addressed topics were the use of personal protective equipment, hand hygiene and safe practices in the handling of cutting material. Most authors explored content validity and some performed reliability analysis by means of Cronbach's alpha and test-retest. Countries in the sample have different human development indices, and countries with medium and low human development indices show less compliance. Some variables were strong predictors of compliance: training, perceptions of safe environment, perception of obstacles to comply with standard precautions and knowledge.

CONCLUSIONS

Compliance is below the recommended levels. Health professionals seem to be selective in following standard precautions. Significant influences include institutional management and psychosocial variables, which deserve further study.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Health managers and government policies and interventions should pay greater attention to this subject.