Assessment of the knowledge of pediatric nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit of Al-Diwaniyah women's and children's teaching hospital about nosocomial infections

Nosocomial infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in newborns. In this descriptive study, it was aimed to examine the knowledge levels of pediatric nurses working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit about nosocomial infections. The sample of the study consisted of pediatric nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit of Al-Diwaniyah Women's and Children's Training Hospital (n = 51). The data were collected using the "Data Collection Form" developed by the researchers by examining the relevant literature in order to determine the sociodemographic characteristics of the nurses and their level of knowledge about hospital infections. The data were summarized as numbers, percentages and averages, and the chi-square test was used in the evaluations. Of the nurses included in the research, 84.3% were women, 62.7% were between the ages of 30-39, 64.7% were single, 51% were graduates of nursing institutes, and 66.7% had served in public for 1-5 years. 58.8% of the nurses have worked as pediatric nurses for 1-5 years, and 60.8% have been working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for 1-5 years. 94.1% of the nurses did not attend training courses on nosocomial infections and 90.2% did not update their knowledge on nosocomial infections. It was determined that there were statistically significant differences between nurses' knowledge of nosocomial infections and some social and demographic characteristics such as age, marital status, education level and duration of public service (p < 0.05). It was determined that the knowledge of nurses about nosocomial infection was moderate with a score of 1.50. The study suggests that nurses working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit be included in training courses and in-service training programs on nosocomial infections.