Factors Shaping Attitudes of Medical Staff towards Acceptance of the Standard Precautions

Jerzy Rosiński, Anna Różańska, Andrzej Jarynowski, Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach and Polish Society of Hospital Infections Team
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Jerzy Rosiński: Institute of Economics, Finance and Management, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, ul. Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348 Kraków, Poland
Anna Różańska: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, ul. Czysta 18, 31-121 Kraków, Poland
Andrzej Jarynowski: Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, ul. Łojasiewicza 11, 30-338 Kraków, Poland
Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, ul. Czysta 18, 31-121 Kraków, Poland
Polish Society of Hospital Infections Team: Polish Society of Hospital Infections Team, the members of this group have been listed at the end of the article.

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: Standard precautions (SPs) guidelines are the minimum infection prevention practices that apply to all types of patient care, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection status of the patient. They are based on risk assessment, make use of common sense practices and personal protective equipment that protect healthcare providers from infection and prevent the spread of infection from patient to patient. The aim of this study was to determine medical staff’s attitudes towards SPs and analyse the factors shaping these attitudes. The study was conducted using a questionnaire that comprised 25 statements describing the attitudes of medical personnel towards SPs. They were designed to pinpoint the factors that determine these attitudes. There were five factors identified that shape employees’ attitudes towards SPs: assessment of the situation, favourable patterns of behaviour, negative norms, unfavourable patterns of behaviour and rationalising. The study analysed 505 questionnaires filled in by hospital workers from five Polish cities. The majority of the respondents were women (92.1%), nurses (87.5%); the average age was 41.8 and the average seniority was 19.2 years. Over one-third of the respondents worked in non-surgical (36.4%) and surgical (31.6%) wards, 12.3% were employed in intensive care units (ICUs) and 8.9% in emergency departments (EDs). The variable significantly affecting the level of acceptance of SPs was seniority: initially the support was high, then it later decreased, with the greatest decrease occurring between the third and eighth year of work. The staff of medical wards and ICUs demonstrated significantly lower support for SPs and strong environmental impact on SPs perception; low degree of acceptance among medical ward staff correlated negatively with factors from the category “favourable patterns of behaviour”. The substantially strongest support for SPs was found in ED workers. The results indicate the need for continuous education of individual groups of workers concerning the application of SPs, but also the necessity to change the organisational culture in Polish hospitals.

Keywords: infection control; standard precautions; hand hygiene; healthcare workers behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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