Knowledge and Practice on Infection Prevention among Nurses at a Selected Tertiary Hospital in Bangladesh

Background: Worldwide infection is one of the most significant problems in health care services. Infection prevention is a crucial component to provide quality care in any health care setting. Infections are leading cause of death and preventable illness. Healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is a major health problem today. Health care providers, especially nurses and doctors are constantly exposed to microorganisms and most of them can be affected by serious as well as lethal infections. The estimations shows that the risk of nosocomial infection is 2 to 20 times higher in developing countries compared to developed countries. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge and practice on infection prevention among nurses in a selected tertiary level hospital in Bangladesh. Methods: The descriptive study design was conducted among 110 nurses from National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases & Hospital, Dhaka, by using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected by self-administered questionnaires that consist of socio-demographic questionnaire, nurses’ knowledge on infection prevention related questionnaire and nurses practice on infection prevention related questionnaire. Descriptive statistics - percentage, frequency, mean was used. Results: Findings of this study showed that the knowledge and preventive practices mean score of knowledge was 17.04 (SD =2.55) out of maximum score 20 which indicate high level of knowledge regarding infection prevention. The mean score of nurses practice on infection prevention was 31.88 (SD=5.75). It means that nurses’ preventive practice was low to moderate level. Conclusion: Study results showed that nurses’ practice on infection prevention was low to moderate level. So, nurses should need to increase preventive practices for infection prevention. Study results also showed that those who have training their practice was good. It can be suggested that to increase preventive practice among the nurses, development of training program on infection control should be increased. Further study is needed with diverse population and culture. Future intervention study also necessary the improvement of preventive practice among nurses in Bangladesh