Knowledge and practice of standard precautions among health care workers in the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria

Health care workers (HCWs) are exposed to blood and other body fluids in the course of their day to day activities in the health care setting. Standard precautions are designed to reduce the risk of transmission of microorganisms from both recognized and unrecognised sources. This study is to determine the knowledge and practice of standard precautions among health care workers in Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. This descriptive, cross sectional study was carried out among Health Care workers in Federal Medical Centre Asaba, Delta State. A total population of all the doctors and laboratory workers was used while the nurses were selected using a stratified sampling method. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was the tool for data collection. A total of 167 respondents participated in this study. The mean age of the HCWs was 36.9 ± 6.8 years made up of 47 (28.1%) doctors, 100 (59.9%) nurses and 20 (12.0%) laboratory workers. There were more females (65.3%) than males (34.7%) in the study. One hundred and thirty seven (82.0%) respondents had heard about standard precautions. Only 63 (37.7%) of them had correct knowledge of it. There was fair practice and adherence to the standard precautions by those who knew of it. Findings from this study emphasised the need for intensive enlightenment programme to educate health care workers on various aspects of standard precautions and infection control programmes and policies.