Hospital Infection Control Practices among Nursing Staff Working at Tertiary Care Hospital of Khairpur, Sindh

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the Knowledge and Practices regarding infection control among nursing staff working at Civil hospital Khairpur, Sindh. BACKGROUND: Hospital acquired infections are the major concerns across the world. However, nurses are at high risk due to front line healthcare providers that increases occupational health hazards of infectious disease. Nurses can prevent themselves by adopting positive infection control practices at their routine work. METHODS: All the staff nurses working in the civil hospital Khairpur were included in this cross sectional study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to identify the practices of nurses and their perception regarding infection control through validated, pretested, piloted questionnaire after taking the written consent. Data analyzed by frequency and percentage calculated for categorical variable like gender, education level, perception, and practices and Chi-square test applied for studying the association. RESULTS: The study includes hundred nurses and 40, (36%) were male red eleven nurses in this study among them 71(64.0%) were female nurses. There was significant difference between both genders regarding their understanding that special precautions are required for Hepatitis B, C & HIV patients like; double gloves, mask special gowns, disposable, or double sterilization of instruments (p=< 0.05), perception regarding HIV patient treatment and care in the isolation ward has significant difference in both gender (p=< 0.05). Knowledge and perception regarding special processing of HIV, HCV, HBV cases instruments also shown a significant difference (p=< 0.05). CONCLUSION: Study concluded that the overall infection control practices were very poor among the nursing staff. There is a need for standard inspection and training programs to ensure these infection control practices should be in place proper way. Provision of the Personal protective equipments should be basic component of the protective approach.