Knowledge and practices on the prevention of nosocomial infections among health workers in Fort Portal regional referral hospital, Kabarole - Uganda.

Abstract

Introduction: Nosocomial Infections are a wide spread threat to all patients, HWs and caregivers affecting millions of people worldwide every year. Despite the fact that health bodies are working towards their prevention, they continue to occur and most commonly in developing. The study aimed at assessing the knowledge, determining the practices and identifying measures existing on the prevention of Nosocomial Infections among Health workers in Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Kabarole-Uganda. Methodology: The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research designs where both questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect data from HWs during the month of October, 2015. Over 20 days, 110 self administered questionnaires were used for the study. All data was grouped, analyzed in a statistical way and presented in figures and tables showing frequencies and percentages. Results: The following results were obtained basing on the study findings; HWs are aware that Nosocomial Infections occur mostly during and after a procedure and most commonly caused by bacteria. They are very common among patients, especially post surgical patients. Hand hygiene is the most effective preventive measure adopted and most HWs always remember to properly clean their hands. Most commonly used PPE are gloves with easy accessibility to Infection Prevention materials. The Hospital has color coded bins for biomedical waste disposal; however, there are insufficient infection control supplies, minimum in-service staff education and a poorly functioning infection prevention committee. Conclusion and recommendations: Inadequate knowledge and poor adherence to IP practices increases the occurrence of Nosocomial Infections. Education has a positive impact on retention of knowledge and improvement of practices, thus there is a need to develop a system of continuous education for all staff as well as ensure adequate infection control supplies to Hospitals in order to reduce the incidence of Nosocomial Infections.