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Narrative Review of Infection Control Knowledge and Attitude among Healthcare Workers
Abdurahman AlJohani1, Karmegam Karuppiah2, Alya Al Mutairi3
1Occupational Health & Safety Department, Faculty of Nursing, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia.
Insights
Healthcare workers (HCW) demonstrate strong knowledge of infection control and needle safety. Higher adherence to precautionary measures significantly improves compliance, crucial for preventing blood-borne pathogen exposure.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Infection Control
- Public Health
Background:
- Healthcare Workers (HCW) face significant risks from over 20 blood-borne pathogen infections.
- Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are severe threats.
- Infections impact HCW health, clinical burden, and national economies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review literature on infection control knowledge and attitudes among HCWs.
- To identify factors influencing infection control practices.
Main Methods:
- Narrative review utilizing Proquest, Medline, and Up To Date databases.
- Searched for articles published between 2000 and 2018.
- Included 28 relevant articles from an initial 400 identified.
Main Results:
- HCWs exhibited high knowledge of precautionary measures and needle safety compliance.
- Staff attitudes towards infection control were above average.
- Precautionary measures positively correlated with needle safety compliance, significantly influencing it.
Conclusions:
- High knowledge and positive attitudes exist among HCWs regarding infection control.
- Reinforcing precautionary measures is key to enhancing needle safety compliance.
- Further research is warranted to address the multifaceted burden of healthcare-associated infections.
Background:
Infection is one of the major threats to Healthcare Workers (HCW) worldwide. It exposes HCW to more than 20 kinds of blood-borne pathogen infections, especially the most severe cases, namely Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The impact of infection about HCWs' health, clinical burden, national economic burden, and humanistic burden suggests the importance of further investigation and discussion on this topic.
Aims:
This paper aimed to discuss literature on infection control knowledge and attitudes among HCWs and potential factors contributing to infection control.
Method:
For this narrative review Proquest, Medline, and Up To Date have been utilized to search articles about infection control knowledge and attitudes among healthcare workers and potential factors contributing to infection control. The search was narrowed to article between 2000 and 2018. A total of 400 materials were initially identified to be potentially relevant for the review. A total of 28 articles were included, and they were found to match the inclusion criteria.
Results:
Results from the reviewed studies showed that there was a high-level knowledge in terms of precautionary measures and compliance with needle safety precautions while staff attitude achieved above average. Weak positive correlation was found between staff attitude and precautionary measures, while moderate positive correlation was found between precautionary measures and compliance with needle safety precautions. Only precautionary measures were found to significantly influence compliance with needle safety precautions, in which higher precautionary measures, resulted in higher compliance with needle safety precautions.
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