No abstract

Background:Healthcare workers, especially nurses, are at a high risk of infection. By complying with infection control measures, a lot of infections can be prevented. This study examined the effects of a training program on knowledge, perception, and risk reduction regarding infection control among nurses.Materials and Methods:This study adopted a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design. The samples consisted of 87 participants comprising 42 nurses in the experimental group and 45 nurses in the control group. The instruments used for data collection were a questionnaire on knowledge about infection control and a questionnaire on perception about infection control.Results:Findings showed that the mean (SD) age in the experimental group was 34.92 (8.99) whereas that of the control group was 47.43 (6.60). The mean (SD) years of experience in the experimental group was 10.42 (9.95) years whereas in the control group it was 21.89 (8.72) years. Findings further revealed that 26 participants (62.90%) in the postintervention group had high knowledge level compared to the preintervention where none had high knowledge. A significant difference was observed between the mean perception score on infection control in the experimental and control groups (t = 17.12; p = 0.001).Conclusions:This study has shown that a training program is very effective and that all nurses should be exposed to infection control training to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills with which to fight against the spread of infection in the healthcare setting.

Background:One of the reported obstacles to the achievement of universal access to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, treatment, care, and support programs includes stigma and discrimination from health workers, particularly nurses. Since nursing students would become future practising nurses and are most likely exposed to caring for people living with HIV/AIDS (PL WHA) during their training, it is of great importance to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of student nurses toward the reduction of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.Materials and Methods:A descriptive survey research design was used. A total of 150 nursing students were selected using the simple random sampling technique of fish bowl method with replacement. Data were obtained using a self-administered (33-item) validated questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of student nurses with regard to HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination reduction strategies. Reliability of the tool was tested using Cronbach alpha (R) yielding a reliability value of 0.72. Data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages.Results:Majority (76.0%) of the respondents were females and 82.7% were married. Respondents were found to have high knowledge (94.0%) of strategies for reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. Also, 64% had moderate discriminatory attitude, 74% engaged in low discriminatory practice, while 26% engaged in high discriminatory practice.Conclusions:Student nurses had adequate knowledge about strategies for reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; negative discriminatory attitude toward PLWHA and some form of discriminatory practices exist in participants’ training schools. It is, therefore, recommended that an educational package on reduction of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination be developed and implemented for the participants.

Background:The knowledge about Ebola virus disease (EVD) is very crucial in the response to the recent outbreak and in order to control its spread. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of self-instructional module (SIM) in enhancing knowledge of EVD among Nigerian students in Bengaluru, India.Materials and Methods:A pre-experimental study design was employed, and a simple random sampling technique was used to select 60 participants. A pretest was conducted with the tool to assess the baseline knowledge of participants after which SIM was administered to all the participants in two episodes. The posttest was conducted after 7 days using the same tool to assess any gain in knowledge among the participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS at an alpha level of 0.001 and Descriptive analysis (such as percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation [SD]) as well as independent t-test was conducted.Results:Findings showed that the majority of the participants (53%) were males, studying for the undergraduate degree (85%), 36 participants (60%) were in arts/social courses. More than average of the participants (67%) had spent only 1-year in India. Majority (53.3%) had average knowledge but after the administration of the SIM, majority had very good knowledge about EVD. The mean pretest knowledge score was 16.03 with an SD of 2.951 while the mean posttest knowledge score was 28.22 with SD of 3.273. The calculated t value was 21.432 (P < 0.001).Conclusion:SIM was observed to be very effective in this study and therefore should be adopted by health personnel in order to convey health-related information to the public.

Background: Secondary school students are exposed to risky sexual behaviors that put them at certain risk of negative consequences. The aim of this study was to investigate the sociodemographic factors as predictors of sexual behavior of secondary school students in Lagos State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A survey design was used for the study. The data were collected using self-developed structured questionnaire called youth sexual behavior questionnaire, the co-variates collected in the questionnaire were: Gender, age and sociological factors. The instrument had test-retest reliability co-effi cient of 0.78 while purposive sampling technique was used to select the schools and respondents. Totally, 2720 students were randomly selected for the study and inferential statistics of multiple regression, mean, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Results: Results indicated that all the three co-variates used in the study were signifi cant. Which shows a signifi cant value for gender, age and sociological factors respectively (t = 6.753, P < 0.05), F (3, 2350) (79.930, P < 0.05) and F (4, 2394) (260.020 P < 0.05). Majority of the students were of the opinion that they engaged in premarital sexual activities despite its attendant consequences. Conclusion: Gender, age and sociological factors could infl uence the sexual behavior of secondary school students in Lagos State signifi cantly; it was also observed that most of these factors negatively infl uence youth's sexual activities. Abstract Access this article onlineWebsite: www.ijmedph.org