The Effect of Education on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Hospital Personnel in Preventing Hospital Infections

Introduction: Hospital infections are a common problem in hospitals worldwide. Nosocomial infections have increasingly resulted in patients' death and imposed high costs over the individuals. Members of the medical team, especially nurses, play an important role in prevention and control of the nosocomial infections. Thus, this research was conducted to evaluate the effect of education on the infection control knowledge, attitude, and practice of nurses in Abarkuh Hospital affiliated to University of Medical Sciences . Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in Abarkuh in 2017. The research population consisted of all personnel of Abarkuh Hospital. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient in SPSS 20. Results: The average knowledge scores of nurses increased from 3±3.82 to 32±6.29 after education. Moreover, the practice scores of participants increased from 14.68±4.63 to 17.20±4.25. No significant relationship was found between characteristics of nurses and their knowledge after education (p>0.05). No significant relation was seen between academic degree, marital status, and gender of participants and their average scores of knowledge and practice after the educational workshop. Conclusion: It seems that education has a positive effect on improving the knowledge and practice of nurses about infection control. Therefore, expanding the theoretical and practical courses of education is essential to improve the knowledge and quality of service presentation.