Level of knowledge among medical personnel about infections transferred through direct contact--results of questionnaire survey.

INTRODUCTION

Nosocomial infections are an important issue all over the world. The most important vector for transmitting infections in a hospital are the hands of the medical personnel, which is why their adequate hygiene is an essential prevention method.

THE AIM OF THE STUDY: was to evaluate the medical personnel's level of knowledge on the prevention of nosocomial infections transferred through direct contact.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

The diagnostic survey method with a proprietary questionnaire was used for the research. The research was conducted between May and June 2013 on a group of 100 randomly chosen medical workers of one of Cracow hospitals (nurses, doctors and paramedics). The age of the interviewees ranged from 23 to 60 years old.

RESULTS

Despite the fact that most of the respondents took part in courses related to nosocomial infections and declared the will to take part in more courses related to this issue, the level of knowledge of the medical personnel on the prevention of nosocomial infections transferred through direct contact and the post-exposure procedures is insufficient. Only 28.0% of the respondents knew that the dominant hand decontamination method according to WHO is disinfection, 22.0% of the surveyed medical personnel admitted that they put covers on needles after they performed the injection and 11.0% of the interviewees mentioned that they change the gloves before contact with the patient only sometimes.

CONCLUSIONS

The surveyed group has not demonstrated a sufficient knowledge of the rules of preventing infections transferred through direct contact and the post-exposure procedures. The level of knowledge of the surveyed medical personnel was dependent on, e.g., years of experience and taking part in courses on nosocomial infections.