Prevalence And Determinants Of Nosocomial Infections Among Health Care Workers In 37 Military Hospital

Thumbnail Image

Date

2019-07

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Ghana.

Abstract

Background of study: Hospital Acquired infections (HAl's) also known as Nosocomial infections have been recognised as a serious public health problem in the last few years and are becoming increasingly common worldwide affecting both developed and developing countries. The Increase in prevalence among developing countries is due to determinants such as poor adherence to existing HAl guidelines, ineffective national infection Prevention and Control (IPC) policies and inadequate IPC personnel. In Ghana, health facilities have overly become the conduit through which health care workers get infections. Previous studies have been conducted on nosocomial infections in urban and rural settings in Ghana. These studies covered the prevalence and determinants of HAl's within district, regional and teaching hospitals. However, satisfactory progress has not been made in that space, therefore, drawing attention to this study on its prevalence, association with knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of health workers in the largest military hospital which also serves as the health facility for the National Disaster and Emergency Response in Ghana Objective: The main objective of this study is to investigate the prevalence and determinants of HAl's among health care providers in health facilities looking at a special case of 37 Military Hospital. Methods: Participants of this cross-sectional study included 270 healthcare workers who were randomly selected from 9 professions (Doctors, Nurses, Laboratory professionals, Public Health staff, Denial Technicians, Radiology staff, Laundry staff, staff from the Central Sterile Services Department and Ward Assistants) from the strata of population at the 37 Military hospital. The duty roster of all the source population were collected and participants were assigned numbers. A random number generator was then employed to select participants. Data was collected In May 2019 using five part Questionnaire and analysed via SPSS v25 software. Chi-square tests was run to analyse associations between socio-demographic or economic factors and HAIs. Results: Overwhelmingly, almost 93.7% (262) of all the health workers interviewed, indicated that they were very much aware of hospital-acquired infections in general. In relation to the common HAl's that affect staff easily at the hospital, almost half 49.3% (133) of respondents asserted to skin infections. This was followed by Surgical Site Infections I8.9% (51). Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection and Ventilator Associated Pneumonia infections also consisted of 28.1% (76) of total responses. The least common type of HAI's that affect staff at the hospital was the Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections 3.7% (10). The study found out that nurses were the most susceptible staff to hospital-acquired Infections. This was asserted by 70.0% (189) of the total population. Again, 27.4% (74) indicated having ever contracted nosocomial infections. However, 72.6% (196) indicated they have never contracted HAIs. Another 13.3% (35) of the respondents had infections on 3-5 instances while 10.7% (27) bad recorded HAIs once. An overwhelming 78.1% (211) of respondents asserted to the fact that, proper hand washing and IPC measures were the most effective methods of preventing nosocomial infections Conclusion: Prevalence of nosocomial infections among staff at 37 Military Hospital was alluded to by repondents with skin infections being dominant Knowledge on lPC measures among the staff was good. Determinants of nosocomial infections were explored from mainly individual behavioural aspects. Work place safety to curb the spread of HAIs among staff at the hospital has been put in place but not too satisfactory. A couple of respondents indicated having contracted infections from within the facility more than once KEYWORDS: Nosocomial Infections, Infection Prevention Control, Health Care Workers.

Description

MSc In Occupational Hygiene

Keywords

Nosocomial Infections, Infection Prevention Control, Health Care Workers

Citation

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By