Effectiveness of educational intervention about prevention and control of health-care associated infection on knowledge of nurses in outpatient clinics.

Abstract

Aim: Evaluate the effectiveness of the educational intervention on the level of outpatient nurses' knowledge, concerning
prevention and control principles of health care-associated infections.

Material Methods: Quasi-experimental design (pre /post-test) was used. The setting was Health insurance training center
at El Helal hospital, Shebin El-kon, Menoufia, Egypt. The sample was a convenience sample of 150 nurses working in
outpatients' clinics affiliated to the health insurance sector. The instrument was structured self-administered questionnaire
composed of four parts: socio-demographic data, nurses' knowledge about the principles of prevention and control of
health care-associated infections, nurses' self- rated practices of health care-associated infections prevention and control
principles and the barriers of practicing infection control principles.

Results: Most of the nurses (96.0 %) had previous training on infection control and17.94 ±6.78 mean years of experience.
In pre-intervention, the percentage of nurses who had a good level of knowledge ranged from 0.7% to 19.3% across all
assessed infection prevention and control principles and 29.59±6.41mean overall score of knowledge; while in postintervention, the percentage of nurses who had a good level of knowledge was significantly increased to range from 58.0%
to 90.0% across all principles and 50.69±3.22 mean overall score of knowledge.. All of the nurses had poor (44.7%) to fair
(55.3%) level of self-rated practice, with 73.08±4.59 mean overall score of practice, positive correlation between years of
experience and pre-intervention overall score of knowledge. The barriers of practicing infection prevention and control
principles were lack of time, increased numbers of patients, lack of resources, inadequate knowledge, inadequate facilities
and equipment, and frequent forgetfulness respectively.

Conclusion: The results indicated the significant effect of the implemented educational intervention in improving nurses'
level of knowledge about prevention of health care-associated infections.