Nurses' Knowledge and Practice Regarding Prevention of Surgical Site Infection in Bahir Dar, Northwest Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infections (SSIs), a type of nosocomial infection, are a leading cause of morbidity and death and increase the overall cost of care. The processes and procedures involved in the operations can endanger the life of the patient significantly. Knowledge of, and nurse practice focused on, the prevention of SSIs have not been studied well in Ethiopia, especially in our area. Therefore, we decided to establish the extent of knowledge and actual practice of SSI prevention among nurses empirically in the Bahir Dar city administration region.

METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Bahir Dar city hospitals from January 5-15, 2017. The systematic random sampling technique was used to collect data from nurses using a self-administered structured questionnaire. The extent of knowledge and practice concerning SSI was determined using multiple-choice questionnaires covering the nurse's knowledge and practices. Logistic regression was applied to assess the association between dependent and explanatory variables. The association was interpreted using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

RESULT: The scores for the nurses' knowledge and practice in regard to the prevention of SSI were 74.5% and 45.1%, respectively. Learning institution (AOR 6; 95% CI 2.52-14.22), service year (AOR 8.9; 95% CI 3.21-21.4) and history of training on infection prevention (AOR 5.3; 95% CI 2.11-13.7) were associated significantly with the nurses' knowledge about prevention of SSI. History of training in infection prevention (AOR 4.75; 95% CI 1.9-12.05), type of learning institution (AOR 21.35; 95% CI 8.01-56.22) and years of service (AOR 29.3; 95% CI 6.89-124.9) also were associated significantly with the nurse's practice in preventing SSI.

CONCLUSION: Nursing practice related to prevention of SSIs is not satisfactory. Therefore, efforts to transform nurses' knowledge into practice is an urgent need for educational and awareness programs to improve knowledge and practice changes in regard to prevention of SSI are urgently needed.