Knowledge, Practice and Factors Affecting Healthcare-Associated Infection Control among Intensive Care Nurses at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka Colombo

Abstract

Infection control is the discipline concerned with preventing health care associated infections and it can also affect at any time people receiving their medical treatments. Without controlling infections, it may lead to having more antibiotics, investigations, complications, and also it will be a massive additional financial burden to the Government. The aim of this study was to access knowledge, practice and influence factors on the practice of healthcare-associated infection control among clinical nurses in the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL). A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. Conveniently, 149 ICU nurses from the NHSL Colombo participated in this study. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher using the hospital infection control manual (2005), Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The SPSS 25 package chi-square was used to analyse the data. Ethical approval was given by the ethical review committee at NHSL and the International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS). Out of 149 ICU nurses there were 51.7% (n=77) of respondents who scored above the average level of total knowledge, while 53.7% (n=80) scored below the average level of total practice. There is a positive correlation between knowledge of infection control with age (p= 0.0000, r=0.291), working experience as an ICU nurse (p= 0.0000, r=0.356) while there is no correlation between the level of education and infection control training (p= 0. 292, r= -0.088 and p= 0.161, r= -0.117 respectively). Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between practices of infection control with age (p= 0.041, r= 0.167), gender (p= 0.020, r= -0.190) and working experience as an ICU nurse (p=0.016, r= 0.197). Findings based on the current study, it can be concluded that in spite of having a good knowledge level regarding infection control, nurses had a fair practice level. Therefore, updating knowledge and practice of nurses through continuing in-service educational programs and conducting evidence-based practical evaluation sessions are needed.