Perspectives on Hospital Environmental Cleaning Practices Among Cleaners at the Tema General Hospital, Ghana.

Abstract

Environmental cleaning in healthcare facilities worldwide is critical to curbing healthcare-associated infections. The World Health Organization provides guidelines and protocols for hospital environmental cleaning. However, the perspectives of hospital environmental cleaners regarding hospital environmental cleaning practices remain unknown within the Ghanaian context. This study aimed to explore and describe the perspectives of Tema General Hospital cleaners on their hospital environmental cleaning practices. The Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991) underpinned this study. The design employed a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design to explore and describe the perspectives of 15 purposively sampled hospital environmental cleaners. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews using an interview guide developed with literature. Interviews were audio recorded with participants' permission and transcribed verbatim for reflexive thematic analysis as proposed by Braun and Clarke. The four themes generated from the participants’ data were;hospital environmental cleaning practices and care support,hospital environmental cleaning beliefs and attitudes, , navigating cleaning expectations and perceived cleaning role control and commitment. These themes were in alignment with the consructs of the theoretical model.