TY - JOUR
AU - Mustafa, Zia Ul
AU - Majeed, Hafiza Kiran
AU - Latif, Shaiza
AU - Salman, Muhammad
AU - Hayat, Khezar
AU - Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
AU - Khan, Yusra Habib
AU - Khan, Amer Hayat
AU - Abubakar, Usman
AU - Sultana, Kishwar
AU - Godman, Brian
PY - 2022
DA - September
TI - Adherence to infection prevention and control measures among healthcare workers serving in COVID-19 treatment centers in Punjab, Pakistan
JO - Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
AB - Infection prevention and control (IPC) measures are easily adoptable activities to prevent the spread of infection to patients as well as among health care workers (HCWs). This cross-sectional study evaluated the adherence to IPC measures among HCWs working at COVID-19 treatment centers in Punjab, Pakistan. HCWs were recruited via convenient sampling through Google form® using the World Health Organization risk assessment tool. All data were analyzed using SPSS 20. A total of 414 HCWs completed the survey (response rate=67.8%), and majority of them were males (56.3%). Most of the HCWs were nurses (39.6%) followed by medical doctors (27.3%). Around 53% reported insufficiency of personal protective equipment (PPE), 58.2% didn’t receive IPC training and 40.8% didn’t have functional IPC team at their health facilities. The majority of HCWs (90%) used disposable gloves and N95 facemasks while interacting with COVID-19 patients. Nearly 45% used protective face shields and gowns before providing care to their patients. Hand hygiene practices while touching, and performing any aseptic procedure was adopted by 70.5% and 74.1% of HCWs, respectively. In conclusion, the adherence to IPC measures among Pakistani HCWs working in COVID-19 treatment centers is good despite the limited availability of PPEs. Their practices can be optimized by establishing institutional IPC teams, periodic provision of IPC training and necessary PPE.
PB - Cambridge University Press
UR - https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/82407/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Healthcare associated infection
KW - Work and workforce
ER