Assessment of practice of standard precautions and associated Factors among healthcare professionals working at pediatrics Ward of jimma university medical center, south west ethiopia, 2022.

Abstract

Background: Standard precautions are means of reducing the risk of transmission of blood borne and other pathogens from both recognized and unrecognized sources. Despite differences in knowledge, attitude, practice, and institutional factors, healthcare professionals practice standard precautions in a variety of settings. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the practices of standard precautions of health care professionals working at the pediatric wards of Jimma University Medical Center. Method: Facility-based cross-sectional study design was used. A survey of total of 205 healthcare professionals working in pediatrics department was included and 20 healthcare professionals were selected by stratified random sampling for hand hygiene observation. Data was collected via a structured self-administered questionnaire developed after reviewing literatures on practice of standard precautions and observation was undertaken for hand hygiene. Results: Overall, 49.8% (n=102) of respondents had reported good practice on safety precaution while 35.7% for observed practice on Hand hygiene. Odds of good practice on safety precaution were 5.5 times higher among age 36 and above compared to those 25 and below [AOR=5.5, 95% CI: 1.24-24.1 p=.025]. The odds of good practice on safety precaution was 3.3 times higher among nurses compared to pediatricians [AOR=3.35, 95%CI: 1.16-9.69, p=0.026]. Those health workers who had work experience over five years were likely to practice good on safety precaution compared to health worker who had served for two years and below [AOR=1.9,95% CI: (0.01-9.01), p=0.033]. Conclusions: Based on the study results, it was found that the practices of healthcare professionals with respect to standard precaution were poor/unsatisfactory. These gaps in pediatrics department should be addressed through training, and strict implementation of national guidelines of infection prevention and control policy and institutional infection prevention standard