Evidence-based practices of nurses for the prevention of surgical site infections during preoperative period and associated obstacles

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine evidence-based practices of the nurses regarding the prevention of surgical site infections (SSI) and the obstacles they faced while using these evidence-based practices. Materials and Methods: Nurses, who were working in Surgical Clinics of Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital (n=120) between October 1- November 30, 2018, were included in the study. Data were collected by using Nurse Identification Form, Evaluation Form regarding Interventions for Preventing Surgical Side Infections, Questionnaire for Identifying Nurses' Opinions regarding the Use of Resarch and Scale for the Obstaclesin Implementing Resarch Outcomes. SPSS 15.0 for Windows program and number and percentages were used to analyze data. Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to assess the relationship between demographic characteristics and the scale since data did not show normal distribution. Findings: Mean age of the nurses participated in the study was 38.42±5.49 years old, and %93.3% were female. It was determined that 83.7% of the nurses received training on SSIs and 54.2% did not apply implement evidence-based practices for SSI prevention. There was a significant difference between the median scores of nurses working year and Practice Subscale, nurses working for less than 17 years (46.7%), having higher perception of disability, and those who did not receive training on SSIs (22.5%). It was determined that they encountered more obstacles in Application Subscale in using research results. Result: It was concluded that practices of the nurses working in the surgical clinics regarding SSIs were mostly complying with the guidelines; and it was suggested to support the use of evidence-based practices and to eliminate associated obstacles. Key Words: Surgical Site Infections, Evidence-Based Practices, Obstacles