Knowledge and Practice of Nurses on Healthcare Associated Infection

Background: Healthcare associated infections (HCAI) are among the major complications of modern medical therapy. While outbreaks often capture the attention of the media and the public, endemic HCAI represents the majority of infections encountered in healthcare and are associated with significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the nurses' level of knowledge on Healthcare Associated Infection, assess the nurses' practice on Healthcare Associated Infection and assess the association between nurses' level of knowledge and their practice on the Healthcare Associated Infection. Method: A cross sectional design study was carried out at King Fahad Hospital of the University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including all nurses working in medical, surgical, and emergency department units. Using a self-administered questionnaire for healthcare associated infection designed by (Yunfang Zhou, et al.), engaged the ANOVA test and pearson correlation analysis. Results: According to the results, knowledge and practice of nurses were found to be low; the overall score of HCAI knowledge was 40.20 ± 11.79 while the overall score of HCAI practice was 45.51 ± 11.04. Statistical significance differences were found for studied participants who undergone training programs on infection control their knowledge found to be high. In analyzing the categorical knowledge, it was noticed that nurses scored well in the knowledge of hand hygiene (80.5%) and healthcare workers safety (77%), and the lowest score was in HCAI pathogen identification (36.9%). On the other hand, analysis of categorical practice revealed that nurses were scored well in the HCAI pathogens (86%) and hand hygiene (70.6%), and the lowest score was obtained in sources of HCAI (38%). The Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between the total knowledge and practice scores, i.e, r = 0.481, which is statistical significant (p <0.001).