TITLE:
Contact Precaution: Acceptance of Health Professionals to Teaching Hospital
AUTHORS:
Hercília Oliveira dos Santos, Marli de Carvalho Jericó, Viviane Decicera Colombo Oliveira, Geraldo Magela de Faria Junior, Patrícia de Carvalho Jericó, Pedro Paulo de Carvalho Jericó, Ingrid Gomes Campos Truzzi, Angela Silveira Gagliardo Calil
KEYWORDS:
Universal Precautions, Infection Control Services, Hospital, Patient Isolation, Drug Resistance, Microbial, Quality Indicators, Health Care, Process Assessment (Health Care)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
28,
2020
ABSTRACT: The adoption by health professionals to the practice of patient isolation is a decision that reduces patients’ risks of occupational exposure to potentially contaminated biological material and prevents nosocomial infections. Verify the compliance of health professionals to the practices of contact precautions in patients colonized by microorganisms in a teaching hospital. This was a prospective observational cohort study in a special-sized hospital located in southeastern Brazil. The observation of health professionals in delivery of health care to patients with contact precaution was performed regarding hand hygiene, use of overcoat, glove, and mask. We carried out 1502 observations involving the following professional categories: nursing technicians and/or nursing assistants (n = 1028; 68.4%), nurses (n = 200; 13.3%), physical therapists (n = 185; 12.3%), and physicians (n = 89; 5.9%), totaling 971.8 hours. Regarding the level of compliance of professionals to contact precaution practices with hand hygiene after the procedures, the use of overcoats, gloves, and masks, all were statistically significant (p Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most positive pathogen identified in laboratory tests. This study provided the mapping of the compliance of health professionals to the practices of contact precautions in order to support a safer management of patient care reducing the risks of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI). This study also showed that health professionals are using practice management to deal with their behavior to protect their health.