Compliance with Standard Precautions and Associated Factors among Critical Care Nurses in Peshawar, Pakistan and Kunming, China: Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES To find the level of compliance and the associated factors of compliance with standard precautions among registered nurses. METHODOLOGY Cross-sectional study was conducted during March and August 2020 in four hospitals, two from each country; Pakistan and China. Data was gathered through a modified version of the adopted questionnaire from 424 registered nurses, selected by a simple random sampling technique. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 26. RESULTSThe overall compliance with SPs among registered nurses in Pakistan was 57.1%, and among the respondents from China was 75.2%. Gender, age and working area were associated with the compliance of SPs. Female nurses from China are 1.72 times less compliant, while the increasing age of Pakistani nurses increases the risk for non-compliance with SPs by 1.7 times. Participants working in Emergency Department in Pakistan were 2.07 times less compliant than those working in Intensive Care Unit/Coronary Care Unit (ICU/CCU). Lack of training increases the risk of being 2.9 times more non-compliant. For Chinese Nurses, less knowledge and a lack of resources were associated with non-compliance in both countries nurses. CONCLUSION Noteworthy numbers of nurses were found non-compliant with standard precaution practices in both study populations. Therefore, strategies like regular training on standard precautions, availability of Personal Protective Equipment and policymaking may improve compliance with SPs practice.