Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Nurses and Paramedical Staff Regarding Infection Control in Aziz Fatimah Hospital Faisalabad

Abstract

Background: Standard precautionary measures are required to prevent the nosocomial infections in any hospital. The infection can be transmitted in the form of blood and other body secretions like urine, cough air droplets and sputum which can contain contagious organisms which can produce diseases. Nurses and other health care workers are responsible for the immediate care of sick patients. Therefore, all the health care workers (HCW) should have the proper knowledge, and awareness of infection control. The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses, and paramedical staff regarding infection control. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study design is used, and 104 participants were included in the study. Result of this study reveals that most of the staff has good knowledge of infection control, but some have unsatisfactory attitude and practice toward infection control either they don’t use PPE or carelessness behavior. Objective: To study knowledge, attitude and practice of paramedical staff and to give recommendation in the light of this study. Study design: Cross section study was performed among nurses and healthcare support worker staff of hospital. Setting: Aziz Fatimah Teaching Hospital Faisalabad. Duration: 2 months.  Results: 104 nurses and health care support workers participated in the study. The results of the study reveal that most of the staff has good knowledge of infection control, however, some have unsatisfactory attitude and practice toward infection control either due to lack of awareness or lack of support from management of the hospital. Conclusion: This study shows that knowledge, attitude and practice regarding infection control is not optimal in accordance with the guidelines. The study has also concluded that appropriate training and education is required to create awareness among nurses and health care support workers to prevent cross infection in the hospitals. Moreover, a strict policy must be followed by all the nurses and health care support workers to achieve the desired goals of controlling infection and saving unnecessary expenditures exhausted on treating the infections. In addition, all the necessary personal protection equipment must be provided to the hospital staff.