Assessment of Nurses’ Knowledge and Practices Regarding Prevention of Surgical Site Infection

Abstract

: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a significant clinical problem for hospitalized surgical patients. SSIs contribute substantially to surgical morbidity and mortality each year. Surgical site infection (SSI) accounts for 15% of all nosocomial infections and, among surgical patients, represents the most common nosocomial infection. Knowledge and practices of nurses play a key role in the prevention of the spread of infection. Objective: This study aimed to assess nurses’ knowledge and practices regarding the prevention of surgical site infection. Setting: The study was conducted at oncology surgical wards, Digestive system surgical wards, and hepatobiliary surgical ward at Alexandria Main University Hospital. Tools: Data was collected through Sociodemographic and work characteristics interview schedule, questionnaire of nurses’ knowledge and practices regarding prevention of surgical site infection. Results: The study result revealed that the total scores of knowledges were good. While poor level of practices towards prevention of surgical site infection was noted. The results of this study revealed that, despite having good knowledge, the nurses surveyed had poor practices, indicating the urgent need for workshops and training programs to improve nurses' practices regarding prevention of surgical site infection. Conclusion According to the findings, the nurses in this study had a good level of knowledge but poor level of practice regarding prevention of surgical site infection. Moreover, in this study correlation between knowledge and practice was positive. Recommendations Nurses should attend updated conferences and in-service training program/or workshops, about infection control especially surgical site infections. This study examines the level of nurse’s practice regarding the prevention of SSIs, and less than half (45.0%) of them were found to have a good practice regarding the prevention of SSI. This means, in the reverse more than half of the nurses were practicing poorly regarding the prevention of SSI. This finding is in agreement with studies conducted in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Ethiopia (Amhara regional state), in which the level of nurse’s practice towards prevention of SSIs was at a low level ( 28) . The possible interpretation of these findings from the researcher point of view is that there are various factors that might be affecting SSI prevention practices among nurses. These includes insufficient practice resources, inadequate in-services training and refreshing of skills; and lack of proper SSI preventive guidelines. sample workload