Interventional knowledge, attitude and practice study of standard precautions among health care workers at a tertiary care hospital in Western India

Abstract

Standard precautions are the backbone of any efficient infection control program. Compliance with standard precautions has been a major challenge for health care workers, especially in developing countries. To access the impact of the training program on health care workers (HCW) knowledge, attitude, and practice towards standard precautions. We conducted an interventional Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) study among 150 HCW (50 Doctors, 50 Nurses, and 50 Technicians) in a tertiary care hospital from June 2019 to December 2019. We carried out educational interventions through training sessions with pre- and post-test questionnaires. We compared pre and post questionnaire mean scores to access the impact of short educational videos and seminars on HCWs using unpaired t-tests.HCWs have poor KAP on important aspects of standard precautions. Pre-intervention KAP mean scores were highest among doctors, followed by lab technicians and nurses. After training intervention, improvement in knowledge, attitude, and practice among all 3 types of HCWs were statistically significant (P-value <0.005, unpaired t-test). Low pre-intervention knowledge and attitude practice scores regarding standard precautions among doctors, nurses, and lab technicians were improved after training significantly. Hence, we recommend training programs regarding standard precautions should be regularly conducted in health-care facilities to promote good infection control practices and mitigate the risk of hospital-acquired infection. This has future implications in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality in resource limited settings.