Knowledge & Compliance of Nursing Staff towards Standard Precautions in the Palestinian Hospitals

Standard precautions are the basic level of infection control precautions which are to be used, as a level of precautions and recommended when delivering the care to all patients, regardless of their presumed infection status. Therefore nurses should have sound knowledge and compliance with standard precaution. Aim of the study: The study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and compliance of standard precautions among the nurses in the southern hospitals of Palestine. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted between March and May 2015 in three governmental hospitals(Alia hospital in Hebron city, Al Hussain hospital in Beit Jala, and Abu Al Hassan hospital in Yatta and three private hospitals Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron city, Al- Mizan Hospital in Hebron city, and Bethlehem Arab Society hospital in Bethlehem city) found in south West bank districts. Data were collected using pretested questionnaire on 204 nurses selected by convenience sample. Collected data were checked, coded and transferred to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Frequency, Mean and other statistics were calculated. P-value less than 0.05 were set as statistically significant. Results: the current study revealed that 78 (38.2%) had fair knowledge, and 77(37.8%) had good knowledge of standard precautions. However, approximately one quarter 49 (24.0%) of the studied sample had poor knowledge level. According to their compliance, more half 108 (52.9%) of the participants had fair level, 93(45.6%) had good level and only 3(1.5%) had poor level.Conclusion: the nurses in the current study for both knowledge and compliance have fair level regarding standard precautions. However, one quarter still had poor knowledge level. Recommendations: Updating knowledge and compliance of nurses through continuing in-service educational programs; emphasizing the importance of following latest evidence-based practices of infection control in continuing education / training program; providing training programs for newly nurses about standard precaution and at regular intervals; and a replication of this study using observation checklist should be done to assess the level of compliance.