Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 29, 2026
Author Spotlight: Microbial Control and Monitoring Strategies for Cleanroom Environments and Cellular Therapies
Published on: March 17, 2023
Preventing healthcare-associated infections: Residents and attending physicians need better training in advanced
G Moriceau1, A Gagneux-Brunon2, J Gagnaire3
1Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU de Saint-Étienne, 42055 Saint-Étienne cedex 02, France.
Objective:
Compliance with advanced isolation precautions (IPs) is crucial to reduce healthcare-associated infections. Our aim was to evaluate physician's knowledge and attitudes related to IPs.
Methods:
An online questionnaire was sent to our hospital's physicians (attending physicians and residents).
Results:
A total of 111 physicians completed the questionnaire: 60 (54%) attending physicians and 51 (46%) residents. Overall, respondents had a poor knowledge of the three types of IPs, especially droplet precautions (13 correct answers, 11.7%) and airborne IP (17 correct answers, 16.3%). We observed a statistically significant difference between attending physicians and residents for the type of IP to prescribe to a patient presenting with multidrug-resistant urinary infection: 44 residents (86%) gave the correct answer vs 42 attending physicians (70%), P=0.04. Physicians (both residents and attending physicians) who were already familiar with the dedicated webpage available on the hospital's intranet (n=40) obtained a score of 4.75/10 (±2.0) compared with 4.03/10 (±1.7) for those who had never used that tool (n=71). The difference was statistically significant (P=0.04). The average score for both residents and attending physicians was 4.3/10 (±1.9, range: 1-10). Attending physicians' and residents' scores were 4/10 (±1.8) and 4.5/10 (±1.9), respectively, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.14).
Conclusion:
Physicians' knowledge of IPs was insufficient. Improvement in medical training is needed. The use of a dedicated webpage on hospitals' intranet could help physicians acquire better knowledge on that matter.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:22Healthcare Associated Infections II: Preventive Measures
The best practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections include hand hygiene, patient risk...
01:26Standard Precaution
Hand hygiene is the most crucial means to prevent the transmission of disease. Employers are legally required to provide their workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) to minimize exposure or contact with...
01:25Transmission-based Precautions II: Airborne and Protective Environment
Airborne precautions:
Use airborne precautions when treating patients known or suspected to have diseases that spread through the air—for example, tuberculosis or measles. These organisms are present in smaller droplets expelled by an infected person and...
01:17Transmission-based Precautions I: Contact, Enteric, and Droplets
Contact Precautions:
Contact precautions are the measures taken to prevent the transmission of infectious agents, especially epidemiologically important microorganisms such as MRSA or influenza, primarily transmitted through direct or indirect contact with an...
01:26Healthcare Associated Infections I: Iatrogenic, Exogenic and Endogenic
HAIs significantly increase the cost of health care. Extended stays in healthcare institutions, increased disability, increased costs of medications, including specialized antibiotics, and prolonged recovery times add to the patient's expenses and the healthcare institution and funding bodies.
01:28Asepsis