Nurses' and midwives' cleaning knowledge, attitudes and practices: An Australian study.
Infect Dis Health
; 26(1): 55-62, 2021 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1065110
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
As frontline providers of care, nurses and midwives play a critical role in controlling infections such as COVID-19, influenza, multi-drug resistant organisms and health care associated infections. Improved cleaning can reduce the incidence of infection and is cost effective but relies on healthcare personnel to correctly apply cleaning measures. As nurses and midwives have the most contact with patients and as an important first step in improving compliance, this study sought to explore nurses' and midwives' knowledge on the role of the environment in infection prevention and control and identify challenges in maintaining clean patient environments.METHODS:
Cross-sectional online survey of 96 nurses (RN/EN) and midwives (RW) employed in clinical settings (e.g. hospital, aged care, medical centre, clinic) in Australia.RESULTS:
Nurses and midwives broadly stated that they understood the importance of cleaning. However, cleaning responsibilities varied and there was confusion regarding the application of different disinfectants when cleaning after patients with a suspected or diagnosed infection post-discharge. Most would not be confident being placed in a room where a previous patient had a diagnosed infection such as multi-drug resistant organism.CONCLUSION:
Greater organisational support and improving applied knowledge about infection control procedures is needed. This includes correct use of disinfectants, which disinfectant to use for various situations, and cleaning effectively following discharge of a patient with known infection. The cleanliness of shared medical equipment may also pose current risk due to lack of cleaning.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Cross Infection
/
Environment, Controlled
/
Nurse Midwives
/
Nurses
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Oceania
Language:
English
Journal:
Infect Dis Health
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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