NURSES’ KNOWLEDGE ON THE PREVENTION OF SURGICAL SITE INFECTION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS STUDY

Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is a common complication following surgery that in addition to imposing a high cost on the patient and the health system, increases the risk of death. However, most of these infections are preventable, and Nurses, as the medical staff most involved with the patients, play a vital role in this field. The high knowledge of nurses regarding the prevention of surgical infection plays a vital role in identifying people at risk and controlling this situation. This systematic review and meta-analysis study was conducted to assess the status of nurses' knowledge about SSI.

To access related articles, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science/ISI databases were searched with these keywords: surgical wound infection, surgical site infection, postoperative wound infection, knowledge, epistemology, awareness, nurse, and their combination without time limit. Observation studies published in English that reported nurses' knowledge of SSI prevention were analyzed. Cochrane's Q test and I2 index were used to evaluate heterogeneity among selected studies. Data analysis was performed with a random effects model using STATA software version 16.

In the initial search, 204 articles were found, and 12 qualified and entered the analysis. In 6 studies, the standard score of nurses' knowledge about SSI prevention was reported to be 55% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 40-70). Meta-regression findings showed that over time, nurses' knowledge scores had an upward trend (p = 0.019), but with increasing sample size, knowledge scores decreased significantly (p = 0.01). Publication bias was significant (p = 0.01). In other 6 studies, the level of knowledge of nurses was ranked, and the level of knowledge was good and moderate in 51% and low in 49% of nurses.

Nurses have insufficient knowledge about surgical infection prevention, and providing training on using up-to-date guidelines to improve their knowledge seems necessary.