investigating nurses’ knowledge and self-efficacy regarding the principles of infection control in the operating room

background and aim: nosocomial infections have been always among the major problems of healthcare delivery systems. the operating room is an appropriate place for causing severe nosocomial infections. knowledge of infection control guidelines and standards is the key to infection prevention. this study was conducted to investigate nurses’ knowledge and self-efficacy regarding the principles of infection control in the operating room. methods: this cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2013. the census method was employed to recruit 62 nurses from the operating rooms of imam reza (pbuh) and valiasr (pbuh) teaching hospitals, birjand, iran. the study data were collected by using a 3-part questionnaire on nurses’ demographic characteristics, knowledge of infection control principles (25 questions), and self-efficacy (10 questions). the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through assessing its content validity. moreover, the cronbach alpha values for the knowledge and the self-efficacy parts of the questionnaire were 0.82 and 0.86, respectively. the data were analyzed by conducting the pearson correlation test and the independent-samples t test by the spss software (v. 16.0). results: from 62 participating nurses, 44 nurses (71%) were female, 46 nurses (74.2%) were married, 27 nurses (43.5%) had a work experience of less than 10 years, and 40 nurses (65%) held bachelor’s degree. the participants’ mean age was 29 ± 7.0 years. most of the participants (42 nurses 67.7%) had previously received in-service educations about infection control from whom, 26 nurses (64%) were dissatisfied with the educations and 28 nurses (68%) reported that they needed to participate in continuing education programs on infection control. the infection control knowledge of 41 nurses (66.1%) and the self-efficacy of 49 nurses (79%) were at moderate level. there was a significant correlation between nurses’ knowledge and gender (p < 0.001) and between their knowledge and self-efficacy (r = 0.271 and p = 0.033). conclusion: the findings of the present study indicated that nurses’ knowledge and self-efficacy regarding the principles of infection control in the operating room were moderate. accordingly, strategies are needed for enhancing nurses’ knowledge and promoting their infection control practice.