A Quasi Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Protocol on Standard Precautions for Prevention of Infection in Terms of Knowledge among Staff Nurses Working in Intensive Care Units of HSK Hospital and Research Centre Bagalkot

Background of the study: Microbes are everywhere in the biosphere and their presence in variably affects the environment they are growing in. The effects of microbes on their habitats can be beneficial or harmful or in apparent with regards to human affairs. A microbe, which is capable of causing infectious disease in human being, is called a pathogen. Four groups of microbes contain pathogens: Bacteria, Fungai, Protozoa and Viruses. Pathogens are the cause of infectious disease (Madison, 2006). Objectives: 1) To assess the knowledge on standard precautions for prevention of infection among staff nurses working in intensive care units. 2) To evaluate the effectiveness of protocol on standard precautions for prevention of infection by comparing pre test and post test knowledge scores of staff nurses. 3) To associate the pretest knowledge of standard precautions for prevention of infection among staff nurses working in intensive care units with their selected socio demographic variables. Methodology: The Quasi-experimental, i. e. one group pre-test post test without control group design was adopted for the present study. The sample includes 30 staff nurses working in intensive care units of B. V. V. Sangha?s, hospital Navanagar Bagalkot. Using probability simple random sampling technique. Data collected using structured knowledge questionnaire & analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The mean percentage of knowledge scores of the staff nurses in the pre-test was 47.02% with mean and SD (16.93?3.42), whereas the mean percentage of knowledge scores in post-test was 89.80% with mean and SD (32.33?1.03). The paired ?t? test showed that there is no significant difference in the knowledge of staff nurses regarding standard precaution for prevention of hospital infection after the administration of STP. Findings reveal that there is no significant association between post-test knowledge scores of the staff nurses and socio demographic. Conclusion: A significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test knowledge scores of staff nurses. The study showed that STP was effective in improving the knowledge of staff nurses on standard precaution for prevention of hospital infection.