Healthcare acquired infections constitute a major public health issue and it is affecting millions of people on a yearly basis. The approximation from the recent studies is showing more than 5 percent of the hospitalized patients are exposed to nosocomial infections. Many studies further show that the surgical site infections are the common infections associated with nosocomial infections and it is contributing to about 30 percent of all healthcare acquired infections cases.
Study by Ayed et al (2015) shows that healthcare providers are continuously exposed to pathogens which are sometimes severe and lethal. Nurses specifically are more exposed to different infections during the course of providing healthcare services to the patients. This study indicates that it is therefore crucial for nurses to possess sound knowledge as well as strict adherence to the infection control practices. Updating the acquaintance and the practices of nurses through involvement in ongoing in-service educational programs and putting more focus on the role of the current evidence-based practices of infection prevention in the continuous training is important. Provision of the training to the newly recruited nurses regarding the infection control frequently as well as replicating the study through observation checklist is necessary in assessing the level of practice (Imad, Ayed, Faeda, & Lubna, 2015).
Study by Desta et al (2018) reveals that working experience is a stronger predictor of the knowledge in relation to the prevention of the infection. In this study, the goal was to the relationship between the acquaintance, practice and connected aspects of infection prevention among healthcare employees. Education level is a key determinant to the level of experience when it comes to the control or the prevention of infections. According to this study, it is clear that healthcare providers with advanced experience as well as advanced age are significantly linked with the knowledge. This is basically based on the fact that as healthcare providers are getting older, they are more likely to have advance knowledge due to their experiences as well as having worked with their seniors (Desta, Ayenew, Sitotaw, Tegegne, Dires, & Getie, 2018).
Teshager et al (2015) also studies the knowledge, practices, and the related aspects towards the reduction or prevention of the surgical site infections among nurses who were employed in Amhara Regional State Referral healthcare facilities, in the Northwest Ethiopia. This study looked at some of the factors linked with the knowledge of the nurses regarding the prevention of the surgical site infections. Based on the bivariate analysis of this study, the age, year of service, sex of the participants, and training on the infection prevention techniques were found to be the key factors associated with the knowledge on the prevention of infections. On the other hand, the year of service, sex, and the training on the infection prevention were found to be greatly linked to the multivariate assessment (Teshager, Engeda, & Worku, 2015).
Based on the outcome of the analysis, males nurses are three time more likely to be knowledgeable on the prevention of the surgical site infections as compared to the female counterparts. Nurses who have served for more than five years were twice more likely to be knowledgeable on the issue of infection prevention as compared to the healthcare employees who have worked for less than five years. Nurses who have been involved in the training program related to the prevention of the infection techniques were twice more likely to be knowledgeable regarding the prevention of the surgical site infections as compared to nurses who have never attended such trainings.
Human are playing an important role in healthcare acquired infections and therefore adequate nurse staffing is important. Batran et al (2018) in their study on whether the standard precautions for healthcare acquired infection among nurses working in the public sector is satisfactory indicates that compliance to the standard precautions by the healthcare providers is related to their knowledge, the standards precaution training, and the experiences they are having. Standards precautions are used as guideline while offering healthcare services to the patients in spite of the supposed infection status. According to this study, the standard precautions are targeted at reducing the transmission of the healthcare acquired infections as well as protecting the nurses and other healthcare providers from the sharp injuries (Batran, Ayed, Salameh, Ayoub, & Fasfous, 2018).
Jahangir et al (2017) aimed at assessing the knowledge and the practices of the nurses in relation to the spreading of the healthcare acquired infections within the government healthcare facilities in Lahore. Based on this study, it was evident that nurses are having knowledge regarding the spread of nosocomial infections. They are also well informed regarding the safety precautions and the use of alcohol-based formulation. Nevertheless, their practices towards reduction of the spread of the hospital associated infections are at unsatisfactory level. This study also reveals that nurses are more exposed to acquiring and transmitting hospital associated infections as they provide nursing care to the patients. It is therefore recommended that nurses must have adequate knowledge as well as the practice towards controlling and preventing the spread of nosocomial infections (Jahangir, Ali, & Riaz, 2017).
Using standardized precautions to help in the prevention of patient from acquiring nosocomial infections is an important part of the nursing care. Study by Moyo (2013), reveals that many nurses are more concerned about their lives as compared to the patients since they are handling different patients from ward to ward. Alternatively, Ventilator patients are more exposed to the healthcare acquired infections whereby the contaminated equipment can be a source of those infections. Nurses who are delivering healthcare services to these patients are also at higher risk of acquiring illness from such equipment (Moyo, 2013).
This study is an institutional based and it will therefore be done from May 25, 2019 to June 25, 2019. Healthcare providers having qualification of doctors, health officers, nurses, midwives, x-ray technicians, pharmacists, and the laboratory technicians will be selected for this study. Healthcare providers who are ill plus those who are on leave were never included in the study.
Self-assessed questionnaire will be utilized to help in the collection of data through distribution at the healthcare workers. The self-administered questionnaire was modified CDC infection prevention and control assessment tool for the acute care healthcare facilities. The questionnaire was organized using English language and the pre-test was performed in the study area on 5 percent of healthcare workers and this was excluded from the actual study to help in evaluation of the content as well as the approach of the questionnaire and some necessary adjustment which were necessary to be made.
The analysis of the data will be based on summary of the proportions, frequencies, the average, the score on knowledge is dichotomized as 1 for being knowledgeable and 2 for not being knowledgeable. The practice score is dichotomized as 1 for good practice and 2 for poor practice.
A total of 250 participants will be selected as the population participants. The participants are the healthcare employees who are involved in the direct care of the patients for a period of four weeks in every ward. The systematic random sampling will be used to help in the identification of the study participants through using the list of healthcare employees posted in every ward in the facility as a sampling frame. The first selection of the participant will be based on random selection. The selection of the sample for the study is based on using healthcare providers who are doctors, nurses, midwives, laboratory technologists, pharmacists, and healthcare officers.
One of the tools to be used in this study is the self-administered questionnaire to help in the collection of the data. This tool will be adapted from the modified Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the control assessment tool used for the acute care patients. Any logarithm or flow map developed