Awareness among health care professionals regarding nosocomial pathogens and role of fomites in their transmission.

Abstract

Objectives: This study was performed to access the knowledge of health care professionals regarding health care associated infections, nosocomial pathogens, fomites and their role in transmission of nosocomial pathogens. Study Design: Descriptive, questionnaire based, cross-sectional study. Setting: Tertiary care hospital of Lahore, Punjab. Period: From October 2017 to January 2018. Material & Methods: Questionnaires were carefully formulated to access basic knowledge of physicians, surgeons and nurses. Responses given were analyzed and recorded as frequency and percentage. Results: Regarding health care associated infections, respiratory tract infections were identified by 72% surgeons, 65% physicians and 59% nurses. Surgical wound infections were identified by 76% of surgeons and 81% nurses. 45.7% physician identified bacteraemia as nosocomial infection. Rate of identification for rest of nosocomial infections was sub optimum (<50%) by health care workers. Regarding identification of nosocomial pathogens, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus was marked by 65% of physicians, 83.8% of nurses, 76% of surgeons. Pseudomonas nosocomial pathogen was identified by 40%, 46% and 64% of physicians, nurses and surgeons respectively. The rate of identification for rest of the nosocomial organisms was again sub optimum (<40%) by health care workers. Regarding fomites, mattresses and pillows, thermometer, stethoscopes were identified by 75.7%, 59.2 and 50% of Health care professionals respectively. Conclusion: This survey identified positive attitude among Health care workers towards infection control but low level of knowledge regarding health care associated infections and nosocomial pathogens. Therefore, to prevent nosocomial infections, there is strong need to develop strategies for improving knowledge of Health care professionals.

Effects of a Multi-Intervention Multimedia Infection Controlmoduleon Critical Care Nurses’ Knowledge and Practice of Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections

“…Thus, theCenter for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed guidelines for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) standard precautions practices ashand hygiene, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), sharps safety, safe injection practice, and respiratory hygiene / cough etiquette (16) . Inadequate knowledge and practice of IPC precautions contributes to an increase in HAIs (6,17,18) . Despite the CDC guidelines issueda decade ago, various studies have been conducted and reported inadequate levels of knowledge and practices regarding IPC precautions.For instance, inadequate levels of knowledge and practice towards IPC precautions were reported among nurses in various studies, one conducted in Palestinian Hospitals (19) , another study in Eastern Nigeria (20) , another study in Iran (21) , another study in Yemen (22) , another study in Ethiopia (23) , and another study regarding compliance with IPC standard precautions in Brazil and Hong Kong (24) .…”