Awareness and practices regarding standard precautions for infection control among the hospital support staff in a tertiary care hospital in South India: a cross sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20173191Keywords:
Standard precautions, Hospital support staff, Health care associated infection, Hospital waste disposalAbstract
Background: Compliance with standard precautions reduces the risk of exposure to blood and body fluids. The awareness regarding infection control and appropriate practices among hospital support staff is critical to prevent HAIs. Hence this study was conducted with the objectives of evaluating the awareness regarding standard precautions for infection control among hospital support staff and to identify the barriers, if any, to comply with standard infection control protocol among them.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital after obtaining the necessary ethical clearance and required permissions. Sample size was calculated to be 80. Written informed consent was taken from the participants. A questionnaire in the local language was used to collect the data. The statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 15. The results were expressed as proportions. Chi-square test was applied to study the association.
Results: 81 workers participated in the study. 91.4% knew that hand washing is the most effective way to prevent health care associated infections. 75.3% were aware about categories of wastes. Among 59 staff who were liable to come in contact, 57 (96.6%) used protective barriers while serving HIV/TB patients. 51.9% of the participants were vaccinated against Hepatitis B infection.
Conclusions: The awareness and practices of the hospital support staff regarding standard precaution for prevention of infection was inadequate.
References
WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care. World Health Organization. 2009.
Saxena P, Mani RK. Preventing hospital acquired infections: a challenge we must accept. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2014;18:125-6.
Amoran OE, Onwube OO. Infection Control and Practice of Standard Precautions among Healthcare Workers in Northern Nigeria. J Glob Infect Dis. 2013;5(4):156–63.
Mathur P. Hand hygiene: Back to the basics of infection control. Indian J Med Res. 2011;134(5):611–20.
Prevention of hospital-acquired infections. A practical guide. 2nd edition. World Health Organization; 2002.
Kotwal A, Taneja DK. Health care workers and universal precautions: Perceptions and determinants of non-compliance. Indian J Community Med. 2010;35:526-8.
Mathur V, Dwivedi S, Hassan MA, Mishra RP. Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about Biomedical Waste Management among Health care Personnel:A Cross-Sectional Study. Indian J Community Med. 2011;36(2):143-5.
Sehgal RK, Garg R, Dhot PS, Singhal P. A study of knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding biomedical waste management among the health-care workers in a multispeciality teaching hospital at Delhi. Int J Med Sci Public Health. 2015;4(11):1540-4.
Chudasama RK, Sheth A, Rangoonwala M, Joshi N, Zalavadiya D, Bhola C. Awareness and Practice of Biomedical Waste Management Among Different Health Care Personnel at Tertiary Care Centre, Rajkot, India. Online J Health Allied Scs. 2014;13(1):1.
Sarika PP, Tambe MP, Patil PJ, Bhagwat VR. Awareness of Healthcare Workers Regarding Biomedical Waste Management (BMW) At Tertiary Care Government Hospital in Dhule (Maharashtra). NJIRM. 2013;4(4):74-9.
Kumar M, Singh RK, Umesh, Rawat V. Awareness and practices about bio-medical waste among health care workers in tertiary care hospital of Haldwani, Nainital. NJMR. 2015;5(1):47-51.
