STRATEGIES UTILIZED FOR PREVENTION OF NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION IN THE LABOUR WARD AMONG NURSES IN MADONNA UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL ELELE
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies utilized for prevention of nosocomial
infection in the labour ward among nurses in Madonna University Teaching Hospital Elele,
Rivers State. Three specific objectives were formulated to guide the study. 80 clinical nurses in
Madonna University Teaching Hospital were recruited as respondents for the study. The
researcher adopted a cross sectional research design using a questionnaire for data collection.
The data was descriptively summarized with the use of frequency, percentages and tables. The
findings revealed that (71.3%) of the respondents know that nosocomial infection is an infection
whose development is favored by a hospital environment, (73.7%) knew that gloves should
always be worn in contact precautions, and (67.3%) knew that Standard precautions should
include the use of protective equipment and frequent hand washing. Furthermore, the findings
revealed that 67 (83.8%) of the respondents perform hand hygiene before touching a patient, 59
(74.2%) perform hand hygiene before a clean/ sterile procedure, 66 (82.5%) wash hands with
soap and water immediately after exposure risk to body fluids, 52 (65.3%) perform hand hygiene
after touching a patient, and 67 (84.2%) use of patient education. Lastly, the barriers faced by
nurses towards nosocomial infection prevention in the labour ward were shown to include high
rate of nursing staff turnover (59.2%), time spent training new staff (70.1%), limitations in
language competency (92.5%), heavy clinical workloads (33.7%), increased reporting
requirements (76.4%), limited time to accomplish multiple goals (90.9%), infection surveillance
inefficiencies (88.7%), and increased scrutiny on hospitals due to public visibility of Hospital
Acquired Infections (77.0%). The study concluded that educational intervention through training
courses have been shown to affect nurses’ knowledge and should therefore be adopted by
nursing managers to improve their practice.
Keywords: strategies, prevention, nosocomial infection, labourl ward, nurses
Full-Text Access Notice
In accordance with the NERD Policy on promoting peer-reviewed publication, public access to the full text of a project, thesis or dissertation is restricted for three years, allowing the author and supervisors sufficient time to pursue peer-reviewed publication.
During this period, researchers with legitimate academic or research purposes may request authorisation directly from the author to enable NERD to release the indexed full texts of the work using the form below.