Knowledge of determinants of post operative wound infection and infection prevention practices among nurses and students at Solwezi General Hospital in North Western Province

Abstract

Basic infection control measures in any health care institution can reduce the rates of hospital acquired infections. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge of Nurses and Student Nurses on determinants of post operative wound infection and Infection Prevention practices at Solwezi General Hospital. Literature on determinants of post operative wound infection and Infection Prevention practices were reviewed. The literature review showed that there is knowledge deficit about post operative wound infection and lack of compliance with infection prevention practices among health workers. However, the Ministry of Health does not compile data on compliance with infection prevention practices. A few studies conducted on IP practice in Zambia have been conducted in other districts such as University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe Central Hospitals on the Copperbelt.

A descriptive cross sectional study design was used. The study sample comprised 4 Nurses and 45 student Nurses who had worked for a period of 4-12 weeks in the surgical wards and operating theatre at Solwezi General Hospital giving a total sample of 90 study respondents. The Biomedical Research Ethics Committee of the University of Zambia approved the study and all participants gave voluntary informed consent before participating in the study. The respondents were selected using convenient sampling procedures. Data were collected using a self administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Epi Info version 6 and SPSS computer soft ware package version 16. Chi-square test was used to determine associations between knowledge of the determinants of post-operative wound infection and infection prevention practices and Confidence interval was set at 95% and the significance level was set at 0.05. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were knowledgeable about post operative wound infection and infection prevention practices. The findings show that 46.5% of the respondents had medium knowledge of post operative wound infection and 17.4% with high, and 36% with low knowledge levels.

The study also revealed that the majority of the qualified and student nurses had medium (32.2%) to high (64.4) compliance with infection prevention practices.

This study has found no association between knowledge of the determinants of post operative wound infection and professional qualification among the nurses and student nurses There was no association between infection prevention practices and knowledge of the determinants of post operative wound infection. There is need to continue providing basic infection prevention information to Nurses and student Nurses in the form of formal training and to reinforce it regularly.