Knowledge, perception, and practice of standard operating procedures among health care workers in primary health centers in a Southern State, Nigeria

Objectives: The research study centered on determining the knowledge, perception, and practice of standard operating procedures (SOPs) among health care workers in Primary Health Centres in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are: to assess the knowledge of standard precautions among health care workers in Primary Health Centres in Calabar, assess the perception of health workers towards the practice of SOPs, to assess the attitude of health care workers towards the practice of SOPs and to identify factors associated with the practice of SOPs by health workers in these primary health centers. Related literature was reviewed. Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey design was employed in this study. The total population was studied, and a total of 162 health workers were recruited for this study. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to extract information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency distribution, and percentages were used to analyze the data using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25 software. Chi-square was used to associations between dependent and independent variables. Result: The result revealed that there were more females (86.4%) who participated in the studies than their male counterparts (13.6%). The majority (44%) were within their mid age of 31–40 years, followed by (25.3%) who were within the age range of 21–30 years of age. Furthermore, the study showed that most of the respondents defined SOPs, as guidelines for all primary health care (PHC) workers (84%) and believed that they should be used by all PHC workers (87.7%). Respondents identified providing guidelines (87.7%) and standardizing patient care (87.7%) as the primary purposes of SOPs. The respondents believed that SOPs provide a framework for taking history and physical examination (93.9%). Similarly, most of them think that SOPs help maintain a high standard of care and uniform treatment (95.1%). For the knowledge of SOPs, 34.0% had poor knowledge, while 66.0% demonstrated good knowledge, 36.4% had a negative perception, while 63.6% demonstrated a positive perception toward the practice of SOPs, and 45.7% had a poor attitude, while 54.3% showed a good attitude towards the practice of SOPs. Not being trained and retrained to use SOPs was significantly ( p < 0.05) associated with their usage, with respondents who agreed that they had not been trained to use SOPs being less likely to use them daily, we reject the null hypothesis, which states that not being trained and retrained does not impact the use of SOPs. Conclusion: Primary health centers are very essential in every society as they serve the purpose of ensuring people receive quality, comprehensive first contact care ranging from promotion and prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care as close as possible to people’s everyday environment. There is hope for the PHC system in Calabar as the majority of healthcare workers grasp the importance of SOPs and their benefits for maintaining the standard of care and improving the outcomes of patients.