Protective Measures Practiced by Nursing Personnel while Providing Nursing Care to Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Nosocomial infections remain a major challenge of modern medicine. It is recommended that all the hospitals adopt an infection control policy of “Universal Precautions”. Aim of this study was to assess the protective measures taken by nursing personnel while providing nursing care to the patients at a tertiary care hospital. The Study design used was prospective observational study. The study was conducted at Medical Emergency Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Centre. Observation checklist was prepared for selected procedures, i.e., catheterisation, I.V. cannulation, changing I.V. fluids and administration of injectable drugs. A nonparticipatory observational technique was adopted. The observations were made mainly pertaining to hand washing and wearing gloves. Thirty observations of catheterisation, 89 of I.V. cannulation, 92 of changing I.V. fluids, and 94 of administering injectable drugs were carried out. The compliance for hand washing ranged from as low as 0% (I.V. cannulation) to 13.33% (catheterisation) before the procedure and 7.12% (cannulation) to 46.67% (catheterisation) after performing a particular procedure. The gloves were worn for majority of the procedure and the compliance ranged from 63.48% (changing I.V. lines) to 90% (performing catheterisation). The compliance with hand washing both before and after the procedure was very low than the recommended levels. However, the compliance with wearing sterile gloves was much higher.

Keywords: Nursing personnel, universal precautions, hand washing, protective measures