Knowledge, attitude, and practice of infection prevention and control among health care workers in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit of Saint Paul Millennium Medical College

Abstract

Abstract Background: Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are infections that are acquired after admission to a health care facility for another reason. HAI causes a longer stay in the hospital, a greater financial load on the health-care system, a poor impact on health, and a higher mortality rate. Each employee working in a health facility has a role to play in preventing HAI. Implementation of infection prevention and control methods can reduce HAI by up to 70%. Objectives: To examine health care staff working in the PICU and NICU at Saint Paul Hospital `Millennium Medical College's awareness, attitude and compliance with universal infection prevention practices. Methods and Materials: Institution based cross- sectional study design was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers working in NICU and PICU of SPHMMC. The study used questionnaires adopted from similar studies and checklist from Infection Control Assessment Tool (ICAT). Results: A total of 171 health professionals responded with response rate of 96.06%. The overall mean score of knowledge 15.28 ± 1.82 with 53.2% scoring above the mean. The mean attitude score was 3.89 with 46.8% having negative attitude. Based on ICAT, the overall reported practice was 40.63% in neonatal and 44.6% in pediatric ICU; however the observed hand hygiene practice was 14.96% in neonatal and 3.33% in pediatric ICU. Profession was found to be statistically significant in having IPC knowledge (p = 0.023), attitude (p = 0.006), and in observed practice of hand hygiene in NICU (p = 0.000). Conclusions: Healthcare workers had low level of knowledge, attitude and practice towards infection prevention. The awareness level differed based on age and professional level. Although the response in hand hygiene module was reported as usually being followed, the observation revealed a different outcome. Gaps were identified in all the five hand hygiene moments. Key Words: Hospital acquired infection, hand hygiene, infection prevention and control