Factors influencing compliance with infection prevention standard precautions among nurses working at Mbagathi district hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Nurses are at risk of acquiring and transmitting hospital acquired infections in the course of delivering the nursing care. Measures to prevent the transmission of these infectious microorganisms are therefore a significant component of nursing care Amadu & Saka, (2012). Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, practice and factors influencing compliance with infection prevention standard precautions among nurses working at Mbagathi District Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 90 nurses working in medical, surgical, paediatric and maternity wards was conducted using self administered questionnaires, observation checklist and key informant interview guide. Purposive sampling was used to select the wards and simple random sampling to select the participants. SPSS version 17 was used to analyze quantitative data and Nvivo version 8 was used to analyse qualitative data. Results: Out of the 90 participants, 83.3% were females and 16.7% were males. A large proportion of the participants (64.4%) (n=90) were trained at diploma level. Only 17.8% (n=90) of the participants had adequate knowledge on the basic elements of infection prevention standard precautions. The association between knowledge on the elements of standard precautions and having attended formal training on infection prevention was statistically significant (p=0.015). A lower proportion of participants (33.3%) (n=18) performed hand hygiene always when indicated. Gloves were the most utilized personal protective equipment by 88.9% (n=18) of the participants, gowns by 61.1% (n=18) and 5.6% xv (n=18) used mouth and eye protection. The practice of recapping used needles was uncommon, 94.4% (n=18) of the participants disposed of the syringe and needle immediately into puncture resistant containers without recapping. Non availability of infection prevention materials and lack of regular continuous medical education on infection prevention were the major reported causes for non compliance with standard precautions. Conclusion and Recommendations: Majority of nurses had inadequate knowledge on the basic components / elements of IP standard precautions and their compliance was suboptimal. Availability of essential infection prevention resources was inconsistent. Hospital management team should facilitate procurement of all essential infection prevention materials and infection prevention committee in collaboration with hospital management team should be conducting regular continuous medical education on infection and should also develop an induction program for newly recruited nurses.