Assessment of an educational training program for nurses working in maternal and child health (MCH)‎ centers in Assiut City regarding infection control

الملخص EN

The aim of this study was to assess an educational training program for nurses working in MCH centers in Assiut regarding infection control.

The study was conducted in all maternal and child health centers (MCH) in Assiut City.

The total number of the study sample in all MCH centers was72 nurse.

There were two tools used for data collection: a structured interview questionnaire and an observation checklist.

The structured interview questionnaire was used before and after the program to measure the exact level of knowledge that nurses have about infection such as (definition of sterilization, proper isolation, good infection control, types of sterilization, equipment that may be sterilized in autoclave(6 questions).It also assesses nurses knowledge about universal precaution related to blood and body fluids (16 questions) and their knowledge about hand washing (3 questions).

The second tool is an observation checklist that was developed for assessing nurses' performance.

Data were collected during the period from the beginning of January 2003 to October 2003.

Each center consumed two months.

Results of this study indicated that nearly half (48.6%) of the sample were in the age group 20-30 years,45.8% were over 30 years.

All nurses lacked knowledge related to the concept of epidemiology only 40.2% of the nurses under the study had sufficient knowledge regarding the concept of epidemiology before exposure to the program.

The percentage increased to 88.9% after administration of the program.

Also the majority of nurses had proper hand washing techniques on the post test with a statistical significant difference of <0.01.As for nurses' knowledge of the occupational hazards to which they may be exposed during work in MCH centers, the majority of nurses mentioned needle stick, followed by the amount of blood splattering from the patient on their hands, patient sneezing or coughing and touching patient skin.

Nurses play an important role in (MCH) centers to minimize and prevent infection through providing the nurses with adequate and appropriate supplies which include protective clothes and equipment in health care settings.

Conclusion; low frequency of correct answer was observed among nurses in the pre test, the prevalence of correct answer was increased in the post test related to knowledge and practice.

Recommendations; periodic refresher in-service training courses should be provided to nurses in order to keep them of up dating knowledge and practice regarding to infection control.