Infection control practices among nurses working in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) of two selected tertiary hospitals in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: The first 28 days of life represent the most vulnerable time for a child’s survival because of high risk of infection and asphyxia. Thus, neonates admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit are at high risk for health care associated infections because of their immature immune system; hence, effective infection control practices would help prevent or reduce mortalities among the neonates. Aim: The main objective of this study was to determine the infection control practices among nurses working in neonatal wards of two selected tertiary hospitals in Enugu Nigeria. Methods: Fifty-eight (58) nurses in the neonatal units of two tertiary hospitals in Enugu were recruited into this cross sectional descriptive study with participatory observational components; thus there was no sampling procedure because the population was small. Data were collected using a 14-items self-administered, semi structured, pretested questionnaire and a 68 items checklist developed by the researchers; adapted to the WHO infection control guidelines. Simple descriptive method of analysis ranging from frequency, percentage, mean scores to standard deviations and ANOVA were adopted for analysis of data obtained. Results: Majority of the nurses poorly practiced effective hand washing, but there was a good practice of proper waste disposal among the nurses. Use of physical barriers among the nurses was just fair; however, their methods of decontamination of instruments were inadequate. Analysis of variance revealed that the practices of nurses significantly differed among the various infection control strategies (F = 22.79; p < 0.05). Conclusion: Despite being knowledgeable of infection control, practice of infection control among these nurses was poor. Although this poor practice of infection control was noticeable in all areas of infection control, it was more pronounced in the area of effective hand hygiene and decontamination &amp; sterilization of instruments. It is believed that other factors are implicated in the poor practices of these infection control measures by nurses, and this is the area nurse educators should focus in their health education and promotion