Study on Pediatric Nurses' Attitudes and Compliance with Hospital Infection Standard Precautions

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify pediatric nurses' attitudes to, and compliance with, standard precautions in the prevention of hospital infections by enhancing their practice of standard precautions. METHODS: The participants were 206 nurses who worked in pediatric nursing departments of a general medical institution in Seoul. The questionnaire was a modification of Kim (2008) and consisted of 18 questions about hand washing, personal protective equipment, sharps, linen and patient care equipment. Collected data were processed using SPSS 15.0 WIN. RESULTS: Mean scores for attitudes to standard precautions and for compliance with standard precautions were 4.43 (+/-0.83) and 4.22 (+/-0.44) respectively. This difference was statistically significant (t=3.368, p=.001). The nurses' compliance with standard precautions differed significantly according to the general characteristics of age (F=8.705, p<.001), total clinical experience (F=9.426, p<.001), current department experience (F=6.555, p<.001), and education experience (t=0.616, p<.043). There was a positive correlation between attitudes to, and compliance with, standard precautions (r=.156, p=.025). CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that educational programs and policy on infection control and standard precautions for pediatric nurses are needed. Also these results should contribute to baseline data for establishing appropriate clinical policy on infection control.