Attitude And Practice Of Nurses Towards Prevention Of Nosocomial Infections In Tertiary Hospitals In Rivers State
Grace Ifunanya Nwankwo
Department of Human Kinetics, Health and Safety Education, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the practice of nurses towards prevention of nosocomial infections in tertiary hospitals in Rivers State. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of all categories of nurses having direct contact with the patients in tertiary hospitals. The simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 400. A self-structured questionnaire with a reliability coeffi cient of 0.72 was used as the instrument for data collection. The instrument was administered by a direct delivery to the respondents with the aid of two research assistants. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, chisquare and binary logistic regression were used for relevant variables. The result on the major practices show that 302(75.5%) always washed their hands to prevent HAIs, 292(73.0%) always sterilized instrument for operation before use, and 288(72.0%) always washed their hands before and after contact with patient and procedure and 142(35.5%) used alcohol based hand rub. The result of the tested hypothesis showed The binary logistic regression model showed that on bivariate analysis age has a nonsignificant influence on the practice of prevention of nosocomial infections (X2value = 19.851, df = 3, p = 0.631) and as respondents age ≥41 increases practices decreases (B = -0.425). It was concluded that, nurses in tertiary hospitals in Rivers State have good practice towards the prevention of nosocomial infections. It was recommended that, State-wise nosocomial infections surveillance should be conducted by the hospital infection con trol committee from time to time in order to maintain a balance in the prevention of such infections among nurses