Knowledge and Practice of Standard Precaution and Sharp Injures among Nurses in the Northern West Bank Hospitals; Palestine

Introduction: Standard precautions defined as “a group of infection prevention practices that apply to all patients, regardless of suspected or confirmed diagnosis or presumed infection status”. The aim of these precautions is prevention and or reduction of transmission of HAI, and in the same time, protection of Nurses from sharp injuries . Main objective: the main objective is to assess nurses’ knowledge and compliance with standard precaution measures and those related to sharp injuries . Method: a systemic random sample of (249) nurses was selected from Rafedia hospital, Alwatani hospital, Thabet Thabet hospital, Khalil Suleiman hospital and Darwish Nazzal hospital. Self administrated questionnaire was filled by participants, and data was analysis by using SPSS version 17. Results: the result showed that (30%) of participants had high level of knowledge about SP measures and (36.4%) of participants had high level of knowledge about sharp injuries standard precaution . Also there was no significant association between mean of knowledge score of SP measures/sharp injuries standard precaution and different educational level of nurses, and there was no significant association between mean of practice score of SP measures /sharp injuries standard precaution and educational level of nurses (P value >0.05) . In addition, the results showed that the prevalence of sharp injuries and needle stick injuries in previous 12 month were (66.8%) and (46.4%) respectively. Conclusion and Recommendations: standard precaution is basic level of infection control precaution . However , the vast majority of participants in this study didn’t always follow it. So more training program on infection control and more concentration on standard precaution by educational program and regular lectures must be given to nurses in order to improve their knowledge and practice of SP measures