The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Nurses Toward Management of Hospital-acquired Infections in the University Clinical Center of Kosovo.

BACKGROUND: Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) are called those infections that were not present at the time of patient' hospitalization in a hospital or other medical institutions and have been acquired after hospitalization.

AIM: The aim of this paper was to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of nurses about preventing the spread and management of HAIs at University Clinical Center of Kosovo (UCCK).

METHODS: The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection in 6 clinics of UCCK during the November-December 2016. Out of 350 nurses, only 331 returned the questionnaire completed. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package-SPSS, version 22.

RESULTS: The age of participants was 37.9 ± 9.3 years by the mean. The general level of knowledge of nurses about the spread of HAIs was 90%, about the attitudes was 84.4% and about the nurses' practices was 76.2%. The work experience had a significant impact on the nurses' knowledge about management of HAIs OR = 2.18 (95% Cl 1.01-4.71), the attitudes of nurses OR = 3.99 (95% Cl 2.14-7.45) and the nurses' practices OR = 2.87 (95% Cl 1.65-4.99). The impact of the level of education in the knowledge OR = 0.22 (95% Cl 0.10-0.48) was significant (p <0.05), while its impact in the nurses' attitudes OR = 0.59 (95% Cl 0.32-1.09) and the nurses' practices OR = 0.8 (95% Cl 0.46-1.38) was not statistically significant (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION: Nurses stated that they had the necessary competencies to practice safe patient care. However, there are necessary joint efforts of policymakers and managers of UCCK to implement intervention strategies in order to reduce HAIs.