Compliance of physicians and nurses to isolation measures and affecting factors

Nosocomial infections (NI) / Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) with its frequently used definition today, is an important health problem that causes morbidity and mortality, prolongs hospital stay, and causes labor and economic losses in developed and developing countries all over the world. Hospital infections are a preventable problem if isolation measures are followed. Health workers have a great importance in compliance with isolation measures. The aim of this study is to determine the compliance of physicians and nurses with isolation precautions and the factors affecting them. The data of the study were collected at Gaziantep Cengiz Gökçek Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital between April and May 2021. The population of there search consists of 96 physicians and 392 nurses working in the hospital on the specified dates. 80 physicians and 305 nurses who agreed to participate in the study completed the study. SPSS for Windows version 24.0 was used for statistical analyses. The Descriptive Characteristics Form and the Scale of Compliance with Isolation Precautions (PSPS) were used to collect the data. Number, percentage, mean, Standard deviation, Student t, Mann Whitney U, One-way analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and LSD multiple comparison tests, Kruskal Wallis, All Pairwise multiple comparison test and Spearman Correlation Coefficient statisticaly analyses were used. The most of the participants were female (70.4%, n=271), 29.6% (n=114) were male, meanage was 31.58±6.81 and mean total working year was 7.54±6.23. It was determined that physicians' compliance scores with isolation measures (67,5±8,28) were higher than nurses (66,9±7,02), but the difference was not statistically significant. It was determined that the mean scores of compliance with isolation measures of both occupational groups were above the general average, and gender, education status, work unit, doing the job with pleasure, following up-to-date information affected compliance with isolation (p<0.05). It was stated by physicians and nurses that compliance with isolation, increased work load and low number of personel would affect negatively, while motivational support would have a positive effect. It is recommended to continue institutional support for the compliance of nurses and physicians with isolation measures, to regularly repeat the trainings given in the light of up-to-date information, and to take steps to improve the negative factors affecting compliance. Keywords: Physician; Nurse; Hospital infection; Infection control; Isolation; Isolation precautions