Knowledge, attitude and practice about hospital acquired infection among health care personnel in a tertiary care hospital of Tripura

Authors

  • Kaushik Nag Department of Community Medicine, Tripura Medical College & Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania, Agartala, Tripura, India
  • Anjan Datta Department of Community Medicine, Tripura Medical College & Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania, Agartala, Tripura, India
  • Nabarun Karmakar Department of Community Medicine, Tripura Medical College & Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania, Agartala, Tripura, India
  • Tamal Chakraborty Department of Community Medicine, Tripura Medical College & Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania, Agartala, Tripura, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20184037

Keywords:

Cross infection, Health personnel, Quality control, Nursing, Tripura

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of hospital acquired infections transmitted from both blood-borne pathogens. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of health care professionals towards hospital acquired infections.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 191 on health care personnel (staff nurses, nursing student, lab technicians, OT assistants, ward girls, and sweepers) available on the day of survey of Tripura Medical College and Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania; data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using Microsoft excel.

Results: Majority (70.7%%) of the participants belonged to 18 to 25 years age group and were females (75.9%); mostly were Staff Nurses (35.1%) followed by nursing student (31.9%). The present study showed that, 87.4% healthcare personnel have some knowledge about Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI). According to study participants, most common hospital acquired infections was urinary tract infections (60.5%) and nurses were the most susceptible (34.6%) group to HAI. Among participants, 94.8% believed that working in hospital exposed them to infectious diseases and 60.2% were willing to change their working environment to avoid hospital acquired infection. Most of the study participants washed their hands after handling the patients (90.2%).

Conclusions: Knowledge about Hospital Acquired Infection is present among health care personnel but there is still lack of adequate quality control practice to prevent Hospital Acquired Infection. Importance of prevention of Hospital Acquired Infection should be emphasized among health care personnel by intensive IEC activities.

References

World Health Organization Department of Communicable Disease, Surveillance and Response. Prevention of hospital-acquired infections. A practical guide 2nd edition. 2002. Available at: http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications /whocdscsreph200212.pdf.

Ocran I, Tagoe DN. Knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers and patients on healthcare associated infections in a regional hospital in Ghana. Asian Pacific J Trop Dis. 2014 Apr;4(2):135-9.

Sheth AM, Jani DS, Rangoonwala MM, Kadri AM. Assessing the awareness and practice of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) among nursing staff of Civil Hospital, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. Inter J Res Med Sci. 2017 Jan 10;3(8):1844-50.

World Health Organization. 10 facts on patient safety. 2014. Available at: http://www.who.int/feature/factsfile/patientsafety/en/index.html.

World Health Organization. Global Alert and Response. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2002. Available at: http://www.who.int/ihr/global_ alert/en/. Assessed on October 17, 2017.

Biberaj P, Gega M, Bimi I. Knowledge and source of information among health care students on nosocomial infections. IJHSSE. 2014;1(7):46-51.

Stein AD, Makarawo TP, Ahmad MF. A survey of doctors' and nurses' knowledge, attitudes and compliance with infection control guidelines in Birmingham teaching hospitals. J Hospital infection. 2003 May 1;54(1):68-73.

Sepkowitz KA. Occupationally acquired infections in health care workers: part I. Annals Inter Med. 1996 Nov 15;125(10):826-34.

Harbarth S, Sax H, Gastmeier P. The preventable proportion of nosocomial infections: an overview of published reports. J Hospital Infection. 2003;54(4):258-66.

Marranzano M, Ragusa R, Platania M, Faro G, Coniglio MA. Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards patients with HIV/AIDS in staff nurses in one university hospital in Sicily. Epidemiol Biostatis Pub Heal. 2013;10(1).

Stratton CW. Occupationally Acquired Infections A Timely Reminder. Infection Control Hospital Epidemiol. 2001 Jan;22(1):8-9.

Christenson M, Hitt JA, Abbott G, Septimus EJ, Iversen N. Improving patient safety: resource availability and application for reducing the incidence of healthcare-associated infection. Infection Control Hospital Epidemiol. 2006;27(3):245-51.

Yassi A, Lockhart K, Copes R, Kerr M, Corbiere M, Bryce E and members of the SARS study team. Determinants of healthcare workers’ compliance with infection control procedures: a questionnaire based study. Healthcare Quarterly. 2007;10(1):44-52.

Ogoina D, Pondei K, Adetunji B, Chima G, Isichei C, Gidado S. Knowledge, attitude and practice of standard precautions of infection control by hospital workers in two tertiary hospitals in Nigeria: a cross-sectional study. J Infection Prevention. 2015;16(1):16-22.

Ojulong J, Mitonga KH, Iipinge SN. Knowledge and attitudes of infection prevention and control among health sciences students at university of Namibia: a descriptive study. African Health Sci. 2013;13(4):1071-8.

Paudyal P, Simkhada P, Bruce J. Infection control knowledge, attitude and practice among Nepalese health care workers: a survey based study. Am J Infect Control. October 2008;36(8):595-7.

Kamulegeya A, Kizito AN, Balidawa H. Ugandan medical and health sciences interns’ infection control knowledge and practices: a comparative study. J Infect Dev Ctries. 2013;7(10):726-33.

Kampf G, Kramer A. Epidemiologic background of hand hygiene and evaluation of the most important agents for scrubs and rubs. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2004;17:863-93.

Mohammadzadeh M, Behnaz F, Parsa S. Knowledge, practice and attitude towards standard isolation precautions in nurses, auxiliary nurses and midwives of Shahid Sadoughi Hospital, Yazd, Iran. Int J Infect Control. 2013;9(i):1-8.

Downloads

Published

2018-09-25

How to Cite

Nag, K., Datta, A., Karmakar, N., & Chakraborty, T. (2018). Knowledge, attitude and practice about hospital acquired infection among health care personnel in a tertiary care hospital of Tripura. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 6(10), 3303–3308. https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20184037

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles