KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL AMONG NURSES IN EDO STATE UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, AUCHI, EDO STATE.

ABSTRACT Infection control is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among surgical patients, and nurses play a crucial role in their control. This study was done to assess the knowledge and practice of nurses towards infection control in Edo State Teaching Hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used for the study. Edo State Teaching Hospital was the setting for the study. A sample size of 100 was selected using convenient sampling technique. Based on the findings it was revealed that 49% of the respondents had good knowledge while 51% had poor knowledge. The data gotten also revealed that 62.0% of the respondents had good level of preventive practice, 29.0% had average level of preventive practice while 9.0% with poor level of preventive practice. The various factors influencing preventive practice of respondents towards prevention of surgical site infection include excess workload, availability of wound care materials and attitude of nurses towards surgical The result of hypotheses revealed that revealed that Academic qualification and working experience were significantly associated with knowledge towards prevention of surgical site infection at X2 =11.662; df=4; p=0.021 and t X2 = 13.277; df=4; p=0.001 respectively. To improve the infection control, the study recommends implementing standardized protocols, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, collecting and analyzing data, providing patient education, and supporting quality improvement initiatives. Further studies are recommended to compare the knowledge and practice of nurses in different healthcare settings and evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions. By improving the knowledge and practice of nurses, healthcare organizations can work towards reducing the incidence of surgical site infections and improving patient outcomes.