Abstract:

Aim: To determine the knowledge, practices and attitudes of nurses working in a tertiary hospital in the Gambia regarding the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a descriptive and cross-sectional design. A descriptive research design was conducted in a tertiary hospital in the Gambia. The population of this study was 441 nurses. The sample was calculated as 205 nurses using the sampling method whose population is known. The study data were collected using web-based surveys that are structured personal information form and the scale for knowledge, practice and attitude of nurses in infection prevention and control by the researcher. Data from this study were analyzed using, the Mann–Whitney U test, the post hoc test, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, and the Spear-Men test. Results: The most of the nurses (60%) are female, almost half of them (48.3%) are 18-27 years old, and almost all of them (96.1%) are Gambian. It was found that nurses' knowledge, practice, and attitude scale total score mean in preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections was 197.21. It was determined that the highest overall mean score (84.57) from the application, followed by knowledge (71.34) and the lowest attitude (41.30) score. Conclusion: The level of knowledge and practice of nurses about preventing healthcare associated infections is at a good level. It is recommended that in-service education be planned to develop positive attitudes since the lowest score for prevention and control of the infection is in the attitude scale sub-dimension of nurses.

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