Medicina comunitaria y educación para la salud

Abstracto

Standard Precautions Practice among Health Care Workers in Public Health Facilities of Mekelle Special Zone, Northern Ethiopia

Azeb Gebresilassie, Abera Kumei and Dejen Yemane

Background: Health care workers are potentially exposed to infections through contact with blood and body fluids while performing their duties. The practice of standard precautions is widely promoted to protect them from exposure to this infection. However; there is suboptimal practice in preventing exposure, especially, in resource limited settings. So this study aims to assess standard precautions practice among health care workers and factors affecting their practice in Mekelle special zone, Northern Ethiopia.
Methods: Institution based cross sectional study with quantitative and qualitative component was conducted among 483 health care workers. Face to face interviewing, observation and FGD were used to obtain information. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analysis were performed.
Results: Of all 483 health care workers 207 (42.9%) of them had good practice of standard precautions. Young health care workers had a good practice when comparing with those older age. The odd of good practice among male likely to be reduced by 50% than female. The study found that, when compared to laboratory technician, doctors and nurses had 80% and 70% reduce odd of good practice respectively. The presence of written guideline and training given for the health care workers were also predictors of standard precautions practice.
Conclusions: There is suboptimal and inconsistent practice of standard precautions in the health care setting that put patients and health care workers at significant risk of acquiring infections. Therefore, the health authorities need to give comprehensive continues and quality in-service training for the HCWs and provision of the necessary infection prevention supplies to maintain optimal practice in the health care setting.