Speakers - PHWC2025

Abstract

Basic infection prevention and control practice (IPC) is a set of procedures performed to minimize hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and guarantee patient safety. It includes hand hygiene, use of appropriate personal protective equipment, environmental cleaning, disinfection and waste management to reduce risk to patient. This study aimed to assess infection prevention and control practices among mid-level professionals in selected referral hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 182 nurses and midwives working in a specific hospital in June 2022. They were recruited using non-probability convenient sampling method and completed self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis was done using SPSS version 28.0 software.  Two-thirds of study respondents (63.7%) were females and 140 (77.0%) of them were between 21 and 39 years of age.  Also 131(71.9%) of them had bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing, midwifery or public health. Around 156 (85.7%) of them had hand washing before and after patient contact (P<0.001) and 64 (35.2%) of them practiced personal protective equipment’s use (gloves, gown and facemask). Half of them reported change of 0.5% chlorine solution of every 24 hours for decontamination purpose and 123 (67.6%) of them reported waste segregation practice at their unit. Participants (77.0%) revealed that they had no updated training on infection prevention and infection prevention manual was not available in their respective units (53.8%). The overall safe infection prevention practice among them was low (65.0%). The existence of HAIs might be higher, so hospital must update staffs on the protocol of IPC.

Key words: Hospital acquired infections; Infection prevention; Midwives; Nurses; Practice