| dc.description.abstract | This is a quantitative descriptive case study that was undertaken at Ronald Ross General Hospital in Mufulira District. The General Objective of the study was to determine the level of Health-Care Workers' Compliance with the Infection Prevention (IP) Guidelines and the factors that influence compliance. It was hypothesized that, there was no relationship between the health-care workers' compliance with IP Guidelines and knowledge of Infection Prevention; Attitude towards Infection Prevention; Availability and access to IP materials and management support towards the implementation of the guidelines. Convenient sampling method was used to select the sample. A total of 77 health¬care workers who included Doctors, Registered Midwives and Nurses, Enrolled Midwives and Nurses, Clinical Officers, Laboratory Scientists and Technologist and Physiotherapist were selected. Data were collected using a self-administered interview schedule. Forty (40) observations of routine infection prevention practices were conducted using a check list. Procedures observed included giving injections, wound dressing, performing deliveries and assisting or conducting surgical operations. Epi-info version 6 and SPSS software computer packages were used to analyze the data. Chi-square was used to measure association between the dependent variable (Compliance with IP Guidelines) and the independent variables (Knowledge of IP, Attitude towards IP, Availability and access to Infection Prevention materials and Management support towards the implementation of the IP guidelines). The cut off point for statistical significance was set at 5%.The study findings revealed varied levels of compliance across different components of Infection Prevention. The highest level of compliance (100%) was with the single use of needles and syringes while the lowest (35.1%) was with the decontamination of needles and syringes with 0.5% chlorine solution prior to disposal. Compliance with hand hygiene was moderate (61%).The most significant factors found to be associated with compliance were knowledge of IP and hospital acquired infections, attitude towards IP, availability of materials for IP and training in IP. Those who had high knowledge of Infection Prevention highly complied with IP guidelines. Corrected Chi Square=51.768, d^4, P-Value=0.000 (95% CI=0.000, 0.038) Linear by linear association 36.009, df=l. A significant association was also found between attitude towards IP and compliance with IP guidelines, for instance, those who had good attitude towards IP highly complied with the Guideline, Corrected Chi-square=6.480, dl^2, (95% CI 0.000, 0.062, P-value=0.026. Linear by linear association 8.814, df=l. In addition, availability of IP materials was significantly associated with compliance, those who indicated that IP materials were always available highly complied with the guideline. Corrected Chi-square= 18.489, d^6, P-value=0.000, (95% CI 0,000, 0.038). Linear by linear association=15.166, df=l. Similarly, those who had IP as part of their training highly complied with guidelines, Uncorrected Chi-square=9.750, df=2, P-value 0.000 (95%CI=0.000, 0.038). Linear by linear association 9.423, df=l. The results showed that factors such as number of years in service, management support toward the implementation of IP guidelines and access to IP materials were not significantly associated with compliance. The results from the observation of routine IP practices were similar to those obtained through the self-administered interview schedules. The highest compliance (100%) was observed with the single use of needles and syringes, while the lowest (25%) was with the decontamination of needles and syringes with 0.5% chlorine solution prior to disposal. Compliance with hand hygiene was moderate (66.8%).The findings suggest a need for inclusion of IP Guidelines in all Health Care workers' curricula. Provision of in-service training on IP guidelines and improvement in the supply of materials for IP. | en_US |
