Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Healthcare Workers about Health Care-Associated Infections in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

HAIs are a patient and HCWs concern; nevertheless, few scholars investigate the factors contributing to HAIs incidence. The rationale for this study was to determine awareness level on HAIs among HCWs in Saudi Arabia and their stance towards the issue. Inclusion criteria was being an HCWs in the hospital and exclusion criteria included having any sickness that would make them unable to do this study at the time and the study sample size was 307 HCWs who completed the self-administered questionnaire. Although majority of HCWs (87.9%) knew that they are at risk of getting HIV and HCV from patients, only a third knew they could transmit the diseases to the patients. The results on factors defining higher knowledge included less working hours, no comparable prior experience, awareness of risks related to infections, and education based on academic courses and journal articles. Nurses, as opposed to physicians were more knowledgeable and adherent of the preventive measures. The least scored item was the ability of the HCWs to identify some of the control measures of HAI, with only 5.9 % scoring wrongly, with the option being personal protective equipment and hand hygiene. HCWs perceived themselves to be at high risk of contracting HAIs (mean score: 7.3). There was poor ad hoc Compliance with Standard precaution as 57.3% of the providers always wore gloves and 52.3% always performed hand wash before putting on gloves. The main sources of HAI information were educational courses (71%) and scientific journals (48.2%). Despite good knowledge and attitudes, adherence to standard precautions was low, emphasizing the need for immediate implementation of policies to improve compliance among all HCWs.