Determining the knowledge level and attitude with the prevention of hospital infections of nurses working in intensive care units

SUMMARY Determining the knowledge level and attitude with the prevention on hospital infections of nurses working in intensive care units This study was performed as a sectional and descriptive study with the purpose of detemüning the knowledge level and attitude of nurses working in intensive care units of Antalya and Afyon provincial center hospitals regarding the prevention of hospital infections. A total 160 intensive care unit nurses were included in the study working in Akdeniz University Medicine Faculty Hospital in tiie provincial center of Antalya, Antalya State Hospital, Antalya Hospital of Social Security Institution, and Afyon Kocatepe University Ahmet Necdet Sezer Application and Research Hospital and Afyon Hospital of Social Security Institution in Afyon provincial center. A questionnaire including the characteristics of the nurses and subjects concerning the prevention of hospital infections created by the researcher under the guidance of literature was used as data collecting tool. These questionnaires was applied to nurses between the dates 28th April - 5th May 2003 by the researcher and a pollster in each shift in order to minimize the interactions. Data thus obtained related to the questions in the study were evaluated by t test. According to the results of the evaluation, the average knowledge scores of the nurses of intensive care units were satisfactory regarding the subject. It was seen that the level of knowledge was affected from age, educational level, and period spent working in the intensive care unit In the light of these results, we believe that arranging in-job training programs for the intensive care unit nurses covering special training subjects regarding their units; and, in addition, we also believe that works of infection control committees will reduce unnecessary occupation of hospital beds, work power loss, time loss, additional expenses, and economical losses that arise from hospital infections. Key words: Knowledge, Hospital Infections, Nurse, Protection, Intensive Care.