Ugandan medical and health sciences interns’ infection control knowledge and practices

Abstract

We assessed the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of recent graduates of clinical health sciences who started their one-year internship in Uganda. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey responded to by 209 (response rate of 70%) new interns who started their internships in August 2011 in different Ugandan hospitals. Validated self-administered questionnaires with knowledge, attitude, and practices questions were distributed to the participants during a two-day internship orientation organized by the national internship committee. Results: Out of 299 subjects approached, the survey was completed and returned by 209 (70%). More nurses (51.4%) failed the questions on odds of HIV transmission after a needle stick injury compared to 23.0% and 36.4% of medical and dental graduates ,respectively(χ 2 = 24.06 p = 0.001). There was no difference in proportions of those who re-sheath needles. Respondents who had an encounter with positive tuberculosis history when taking clinical notes while unprotected were not more motivated to use masks (χ 2 = 7.06; p = 0.07). Nurses and dentists reported more regular hand washing before and after patient contact compared to medical doctors. Conclusion: Overall, the knowledge of infection control was not impressive and the attitudes and practices appeared to be heavily influenced by the lack of an enabling environment in training hospitals and internship hospitals. There is little likelihood of change due to internship experience except for those who go to missionary hospitals that have stricter infection control protocols. More effort must be made in teaching hospitals to encourage better infection control.

Effectiveness of Internship in Fostering Learning: The Case of African Rural University

“…However, the findings on H1 were consistent with studies (e.g., Rusnah et al, 2009;Chen & Chen, 2011) that did not find cognitive learning experience to be a correlate of internship. The findings on H2 also joined the category of earlier studies that did not find a correlation between behavioral learning experience and internship, study (e.g., Chen & Chen, 2011) yet the findings on H3 were also consistent with findings of studies (e.g., Rusnah et al, 2009;Kamulegeya et al, 2012) that did not find a correlation between environmental learning experience and Internship.…”

“…However, some studies found environmental learning to be a negative correlate of internship. For example, Rusnah et al (2009) which looked into undergraduate internship attachment in accounting and Kamulegeya, Kizito et al (2012) which addressed the Ugandan medical and health science interns' infection knowledge and practice. The controversy in findings warrants further investigation to be done on the hypothesis to the effect that:…”

“…There are quite a number of studies that have looked into the aspect of internship. For example, Kamulegeya, Kizito, and Balidawa (2012) looked into the Ugandan medical and health sciences interns' infection and control knowledge and practice, Chinomona and Surujhal (2012) addressed the influence of student's internship on their self-improvement and professionalism in respect to South Africa just like Taylor and Govender (2013) and Bama and Issy (2013) investigated education and training for the workplace and the graduate employability in cape town with specific reference to the environmental internship programme respectively.…”

Infection Control Knowledge and Practices Among Medical and Dental Interns at Taibah University, Saudi Arabia, 2016.

“…This is found to be less than other studies, that had (75.5%) of respondents that reported to adhere to wearing gloves while performing procedures (11). A study in Uganda had (83.25%) of the respondents who always use gloves when drawing blood or placing cannulas (14). On the other hand, a study done on Healthcare workers had lesser results than ours, where only (43%) have always used gloves when drawing blood (15).…”

A Relative Study to Illustrate the Infection Control Practices Based on Knowledge, Attitude and Practices at a Tertiary University Hospital

“…In contrast, Abdullahi and colleagues [11] showed that 26.5% of nurses out of 518 subjects had very low level of knowledge with respect to infection control measures [11]. Kamulegeya et al [12] also found that 51.4% of nurses out of 209 participants have poor or wrong knowledge about the transmission of blood-borne organisms [12]. In the study by Darawad and colleagues [13] which evaluated 198 nurses, it was also shown that Jordanian nurses have moderate level of compliance with hand-washing and poor knowledge about hand hygiene protocols [13].…”