Infection prevention, control and management: assessing the knowledge among nurses and student nurses in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Background and aims: The knowledge of infection control among health-care workers is a crucial factor in the success of infection control pro-grams. This study compares the understanding of infection control and prevention practices among nurses and student nurses in eastern province of Sri Lanka.

Methods: We utilized a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire with 25 questions. Descriptive statistics and the independent t-test were used to analyze survey responses and compare scores between groups.

Results: Out of 178 responses analyzed 112 were nurses and 66 were student-nurses. The average scores were 44% for nurses and 51% for student-nurses. Both groups had less than 10% knowledge of notifiable diseases in Sri Lanka and medical abbreviations. Knowledge about immunization, vaccines, clinical sample transportation, and MRSA decolonization was under 40% for both groups. Overall knowledge of infection control and prevention practices among nurses was significantly poorer than that of student-nurses (p<0.001).

Conclusion: These findings underscore the generally inadequate knowledge of infection control and prevention practices among both nurses and student-nurses. It is imperative to implement policies and measures to as-sess and enhance the training curricula for student-nurses and to ensure ongoing training programs for nurses.