Factors Affecting Nurses’ Compliance to Standard Precautions in Resource Scarce Settings | Biomedgrid

Background: Standard precautions are universally accepted guidelines for infection control practices in health care settings. Good compliance to standard precautions prevents nurses from occupational exposure to blood and body fluid and decrease the risk of infection transmission to them as well as to patients. Aim: The overarching aim of the study was to determine nurses' knowledge, their compliance and factors affecting their compliance to SPs in resource scarce settings. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted to determine nurses' knowledge, compliance and factors affecting their compliance to SPs in three tertiary care public sector hospitals in Peshawar. A total of 199 registered nurses were recruited to the study through Stratified random sampling. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. Results: The mean knowledge score reported was 11.64(58.2%) with SD of 2.16(10.8%) out of 20(100%) marks. The maximum score documented was 18(90%) whereas the minimum score was 6(30%). A significant result with p-value 0.011 was obtained between training of infection control and SPs Knowledge. The mean compliance score was 33.83(56.38%) with SD of 10.84 (18.06%), with the maximum value 59(98.33%) and the minimum value of 10(16.67%) out of 60(100%). A significant association was noted between gender and compliance (p-value 0.006) and as well as between infection control training and compliance (p-value 0.001). Contributing factors towards noncompliance to SPs reported were lack of resources, workload and lack of infection control policies. Conclusion: This study identifies that nurses working in tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar do not have enough knowledge and compliance to SPs. The study suggests that health authorities should take necessary actions for developing and implementing infection control practices in these hospitals