Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice Toward Isolation Precautions Amongst Nurses and Auxiliary Nurses in Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz, Iran

Understanding the factors influencing nurses’ compliance with infection prevention strategies can assist in reducing occupational infections.

We surveyed nurses and auxiliary nurses in Shiraz, Iran, to evaluate their knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) towards isolation precautions (IP).

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a teaching hospital in Shiraz, Iran, in 2019. A five-part self-administered questionnaire was used, addressing demographics and infection prevention knowledge; nine items on KAP towards standard precautions, five items on droplet precautions, six items about airborne precautions, and eight items about contact precautions. The independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation were performed.

The mean score of practice was lower than that of knowledge and attitude in all IP domains. Droplet precautions acquired lower KAP scores than other domains. There were significant positive correlations between KAP scores in all IP domains in nurses (P < 0.001) and auxiliary nurses, except for the correlation between knowledge and practice in terms of standard precautions (P = 0.099). In nurses, age significantly correlated with knowledge towards airborne precautions (P < 0.001) and with attitude regarding droplet precautions (P = 0.003). Nurses had significantly higher scores regarding knowledge (P = 0.037) and attitude (P = 0.009) towards standard precautions than auxiliary nurses. The persons who had previous training sessions presented a higher score of the practice dimension for droplet (P = 0.001), airborne (P = 0.011), and contact (P = 0.004) precautions.

This study revealed a gap in Nemazee hospital nurses’ KAP towards IPs. Those responsible for infection prevention and control programs in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences must address this poor practice of nurses towards patient safety.