Assessments of knowledge of nurses working in hemodialysis units in Al-najaf on toward infection control measures

Background: Renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment and nursing staff working in hemodialysis units are at a significantly increased risk of healthcare-acquired infections, for example, blood-borne infections such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus, and bacterial and fungal infections due to repeated and prolonged exposure to many potential pollutants in the hemodialysis setting. Healthcare-acquired infections are the most common reason for hospitalization and mortality rates among hemodialysis patients after cardiovascular disease. Nursing staff's compliance with infection control and prevention measures reduces transmission, therefore standard precautions must be adhered to in hemodialysis units. Objective: The aims of the study is to assess knowledge of nurses working in hemodialysis units towards infection control measures. Materials and Method: Quantitative design (the descriptive cross-sectional study) was used to achieve the objectives of this study. This study was conducted in the hemodialysis units at Al-Najaf city hospitals in Iraq between March 2022 and April 2022 based on a non-probability sampling (purposive sampling). The sample consisted of 100 nurses including 59 nurses working in Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital and 41 nurses working in Al-Hakim General Hospital. A questionnaire was prepared as a data collection tool and consists of two parts. The first part includes the socio-demographic information of the nursing staff (age, gender, level of education, residence, marital status, workplace, years of experience in hospitals, years of experience in hemodialysis unit, participation in training courses related to hemodialysis units, participation in training courses related to infection control measures, and doses of the hepatitis vaccine they got). The second part includes 39 multiple-choice questions aiming to assess knowledge of nurses working in hemodialysis units about infection control measures. The number of correct answers was used to measure each nurse's knowledge level. They were rated as two points for correct answer and one point for incorrect answer. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the results. Results: The findings of the study showed that the majority of the participants were female and aged between 25 and 29 years, had a bachelor of nursing, lived in urban cities, were married and were well-experienced in working in hospitals and hemodialysis units, and a great majority of them got the hepatitis vaccine, most of them also received training courses on hemodialysis and infection control measures. The results revealed that the nurses' knowledge of the infection control measures was average (moderate). 74,95% had a statistical mean score of 1,499. The findings also showed a high level of statistical significant correlation between nurses' knowledge of working in hemodialysis units and socio-demographic information in line with the critical and unique nature of hemodialysis units, such as the educational level of socio-demographic information, participation in training courses on hemodialysis units inside and outside Iraq, and participation in training courses on infection control measures training inside and outside Iraq, the number of infection control training courses, and duration of infection control training courses. The probability value were (p < = 0,05). Conclusions: The study concluded that most of the participants had knowledge about infection control measures and there was a highly statistically significant correlation between nurses' knowledge levels and their socio-demographic information, but because of the critical and unique nature of hemodialysis units, very strict procedures must be imposed in those units and nursing staff must be trained on infection control measures for hemodialysis units.