Knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy of nursing staffs in hospital infections control

Medical team members, especially nurses can play an active role in prevention and control of nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was evaluating the knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy of nursing staff in controlling nosocomial infections This Cross-sectional study was done in 2010 on 135 nursing staff working in selected hospitals of Mashhad selected by census and purposive method. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire evaluating knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy in controlling hospital infections. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software using descriptive statistical methods and Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests. 67.9% of the nursing staff had average knowledge and 29.9% had good knowledge about infection control. 90.4% had positive attitude towards the perceived threats of nosocomial infections, 17.2% were agreed with the perceived barriers of infections’ prevention and control and 36.2% were agreed with the perceived benefits of infection control. 25.2% had average self-efficacy and 74.8% had good self-efficacy. There was not significant relationship between knowledge and self-efficacy. In addition, there was no correlation between attitude and efficacy but there was a significant relationship between knowledge and gender (p<0.05). Nurses do not have appropriate knowledge about controlling nosocomial infections based on the findings of this study. Considering the important role of nurses in nosocomial infection control, training is necessary to increase nurses’ knowledge and attitude in order to adopt appropriate health behaviors with positive attitude and more ability.