Knowledge, Attitude And Practice Of Nurses Towards Prevention Of Health care Acquired Infections In Nakasero Hospital, Kampala.

Abstract

Introduction: Of every 100 hospitalized patients at any given time, 7 in developed and 10 in developing countries will acquire at least one health care associated infection. As members of the health care team, nurses play a very important role in HCAI control. Therefore, nurses must have sufficient information and necessary skills in this field.

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses towards prevention of health care acquired infections in Nakasero Hospital, Kampala. Methods: This was a descriptive researcher administered pre-tested questionnaires cross-sectional survey. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were not performed since we did not seek to determine any association.

Results: We recruited 70 nurses into the study.40% (28) were males, 35.7% (25) were registered nurses, 14.3% (10) ward assistants, 35.7%(25) enrolled nurses and 14.3% (10) BNS. The mean age of participants was 28 ± 1.13, and the mean duration of employment was 3 ± 1.5 years. Almost all 84.3%(59) nurses in Nakasero Hospital used disposal mask and gloves once and discard them after use and 84.3% of the nurses sterilize equipment and dressings after use in their departments.

Conclusion and Recommendation: Nurses in any health care systems should be aware of effectiveness of Health care associated infection control measures. The poor practice of nurses in this study indicates a strong need of an on-job periodic trainings in Nakasero Hospital limited to control acquisition/ spread of Health care associated infections. Furthermore, we recommend that a similar study should be carried out in government facility in both rural and urban settings for comparison.