Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Standard Precautions Among Health Care Workers

• Title page
• Approval page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgement
• Table of Contents
• Abstract

Chapter One

Introduction

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Background …
• …

Chapter Two

Literature Review

• 2.1 Introduction
• …

Chapter Three

Research Methodology

• 3.1 Introduction
• …

Chapter Four

Results and Discussion

• 4.1 Introduction
• …

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 Summary
• 5.3 Conclusion
• 5.4 Recommendation

References

1.1 Introduction

This chapter reviews in brief, Health Care Associated Infections (HAI), elements required for transmission of infectious agent within a health care setting (chain of infection, sources of infection, susceptible host, mode of transmission, portal of entry and portal of exit), HAI among health-care workers, Universal Precautions (UP), Body Substances Isolation (BSI) and Standard Precautions (SP).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study, Research Questions and Hypothesis and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Health-care associated infection (HAI), also referred to as nosocomial infection and hospital acquired infection, is defined by Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an “infection caused by a wide variety of common and unusual bacteria, fungi, and viruses during the course of receiving medical care”(CDC, 2012). It either occurs while patients receive care or may develop after discharge. It also involves occupation infection among staff. HAI can also be defined as an “infection occurring in patients during the process of care in a hospital or health care facility which was not present or incubating at the time of admission.

This includes infection acquired in the hospital, but appearing after discharge and also occupational infections among staff or facility” (WHO, 2012).HAI is considered an important public health problem (WHO, 2012). Globally, hundreds of millions of patients are infected by HAI every year in both developed and developing countries. According to WHO, its prevalence in developed countries varied between 3.5% and 12%, while in developing countries it varied between 5.7% and 19.1% (WHO, 2012). The highest occurrences of HAI were in acute surgical, orthopedic wards and Intensive Care Unit (WHO, 2002). The prevalence rate of ICU-acquired infection in high-income countries was 30%, while in middle and low-income countries, it was at least 2-3 times higher than that in high-income countries(WHO, 2009; WHO, 2012).

The consequences of HAI at patients' level imply more suffering, more complications, more treatments, and increase in hospitalization periods. For example, in Europe duration of hospitalization increased to nearly 16 million extra days (WHO, 2012).This is in itself considered a risk factor for acquiring HAI, and it means an increase in costs (WHO, 2012). In addition, it increases economic burden on the health care systems of countries. For example, in England, the annual financial costs topped 1.3 billion euro's, while in the United States of America, the costs amounted to approximately 3.5 billion euro's and 7 billion euro's in Europe (WHO, 2012; WHO, 2012; Agozzino et al., 2012).

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation reveals the following problems of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Standard Precautions among Health Care Workers research work;

Nurses get in contact with patients on a daily basis, so they are exposed to sharp injuries and many types of infections due to the nature of their occupation. It is important to follow standard precautions to reduce transmission of infections. In Palestine, despite of the availability of protocol for infection control in hospitals, it is applicable in varied degree from hospital to hospital. In addition, after reviewing documents from Palestinian Health Information Centre in MOH, it doesn't have any statistics regarding nurses' knowledge and practice of SP measures and those related to SI among health care workers. In addition, it doesn't have any statistics regarding health care workers who have SI or who acquired infection during work. As an expected outcome, this study will identify the importance of nurses' knowledge about SP measures and those related to SI. Also it will highlight the size of problem of stick injuries among workers during work.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to assess health care worker' knowledge and compliance with standard precaution measures and those related to sharp injuries and their compliance with those related standard precautions. In achieving this aim, the specific objectives were set out as follows;

1. To compare mean of score of knowledge about standard precaution measures and those related to SI among different educational level of health care workers in federal teaching hospital, Edo-Ekiti.
2. To compare mean of score of practice of standard precaution measures and those related to SI among different educational level of health care workers in federal teaching hospital, Edo-Ekiti.
3. To identify the correlation between health care workers' knowledge and their practices of standard precaution measures in federal.
4. To identify the correlation between health care workers' knowledge and their practices of standard precaution measures related to sharp injuries.
5. To identify level of health care workers' knowledge of SP measures, those related to SI which might be attributed to variables of years of experience, place of work and gender of participants.
6. To estimate the prevalence of sharp injuries and needle stick injuries among nurses in the target hospitals.
7. To identify the percentage of needles sticks as a result of sharp injuries.

1.4 Research Questions

The following are the questions of the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Standard Precautions among Health Care Workers research work;

• Does health worker have a good level of knowledge about SP and those related to SI?
• What is the association between good level of health worker’s knowledge about SP measures related to SI and their years of experience, place of work and gender?
• What is the linear relationship between health worker's knowledge and their practice of SP measure related to SI?
• Is there any linear relationship between health worker's knowledge and their practice of SP measures?
• Is there any association between good level of health worker’s knowledge about SP measures related to SI and their years of experience, place of work and gender?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following are the hypothesis of the research work;

Hypothesis One

H0: The health care workers don't have a good level of knowledge about SP and those related to SI

H1: The health care workers do have a good level of knowledge about SP and those related to SI

Hypothesis Two

H0: There is no difference in mean of knowledge of SP measures and different educational level of health care workers.

H1: There is a difference in mean of knowledge of SP measures and different educational level of health care workers.

Hypothesis Three

H0: There is no difference in mean of practice of SP measures and different educational level of health care worker in dental clinic.

H1: There is a difference in mean of practice of SP measures and different educational level of health care worker in dental clinic.

Hypothesis Four

H0: There is no difference in mean of practice of SP measures related to SI and different educational level of health worker in dental clinic.

H0: There is a difference in mean of knowledge of SP measures related to SI and different educational level of health worker.

1.6 Scope of Study

The study focuses on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Standard Precautions among Health Care Workers in Dental Clinic in federal teaching hospital, Edo-Ekiti.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.8 Significance of the Study

This research, the first of its kind to be done in governmental hospitals in West Bank, to assesses knowledge and practice of SP measures and those related to SI among health care workers. Globally, many studies have been conducted about knowledge and practice of SP measures and those related to sharp injuries. Safety of Nurses and patients is considered an important issue in controlling and limiting the transmission of infectious disease between health care providers and patients. Following such standard precautions, which are easy and simple, would reduce the transmission of many types of contagious disease, thus reducing the economic burden of treating these diseases.

This study also calculated SI and NSI among participants. It is important to know prevalence of SI and NSI because needle sticks and sharps injuries represent a significant hazard in professional health care providers and exposure to blood and body fluid has been considered as part of nurses' job. It is expected that this study will play an important role in highlighting the importance of knowledge and compliance with SP among health care workers during daily work. It is also expected to highlight the size of the problem of SI and NSI.

Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.

1.9 Research Problem Solutions

Solutions of this problem include the following (WHO, 2012):

1. Determination of the local factors of the HAI burden.
2. Encouragement of the reporting and surveillance system.
3. Improvement of education and training of nurses in applying safety precaution.
4. Implementation and application of standard precaution which is simple and low-cost but helpful in controlling spread of HAI as it saves money and saves life.

Account Details - For USSD / POS Transfer

Account Name: Sparklyn Services Account No: 1222599051 Account Type: Current Bank Name: Zenith Bank PLC

Proposal Writing Format under Applied Science

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Standard Precautions Among Health Care Workers is a proposal topic for final year research work, which comprises the major and elective project proposal writing sections for Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Standard Precautions Among Health Care Workers research work.

Major Sections

• Motivation for Embarking on the Project

• Brief Background of Study

• Statement of Problems

• Aim of the Study

• Specific Objectives of the Study

• Significance of the Study (Who benefits from the project and how?)

Elective Sections

• Relevant Research Questions

• Relevant Research Hypotheses