Evaluating the Observance Degree of Sterile Principles in The Process of Urinary Catheterization

Background: Urinary tract infections are responsible for 45% of hospital-acquired infections, of which the urinary catheter is responsible for 80% of hospital-acquired urinary infections. Objectives: Due to the importance of the issue and its relationship with the application of correct principles of catheterization in accordance with existing standards in preventing infection, we decided to investigate the observance degree of sterile principles of catheterization in medical wards. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, two researchers in different medical wards of selected hospitals of Abadan University of Medical Sciences evaluated the procedure based on a researcher-made checklist. The data was analyzed by Pearson correlation using SPSS-21 software. Results: In this study, 150 people were included as the participants. The results of the study indicated better performance in women and people with a history of less than 5 years, and the best performance belonged to the age group of 20-29 years. Besides, based on the position, students and nursing experts achieved the best performance, and the group of Practical Nurse and physicians showed the weakest performance. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate lack of knowledge or inattention to the observance of standards and their importance among health staff. This especially holds true in people with working experience and older ages, practical nurses and physicians, and those who neglected continuous training and followed the procedures incorrectly. The working principles are mostly performed on a routine basis with the least amount of time and accuracy. Therefore, more attention should be devoted to this issue through workshops and educational forums as well as interaction with centers of evidence-based care that use their life experiences with regard to existing facilities.