Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Regarding Infection Control Measures among Clinical Medical Students in South Eastern Nigeria

Introduction: HAIs are a major cause of morbidity, mortality and economic burden considering it affects millions of people each year. Evidence has shown that a great proportion of healthcare providers and patients had acquired infections within a healthcare facility.

Methodology: A snowball sampling technique was utilized in the distribution of the online questionnaires sent in the form of a link through social media outlets such as WhatsApp, Face book and emails. This study was carried out among the clinical medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, in all colleges of medicine in south-eastern Nigeria. There was no restriction on the number of clinical medical student per school.

An online survey was created using the free software Google form and distributed through social media networks (WhatsApp, Facebook, Emails). Data was collected within 4 weeks interval. Analysis was performed using the Statistical Software Package SPSS version 22.0. Descriptive statistics (including means and standard deviations) was calculated for the numerical variables. Approval to carry out this study was obtained from the Scientific and Ethical Review Boards of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, Anambra State, South East Nigeria.

Result: From the research conducted, out of 333 respondents, a whopping number of 138 medical students (41.4%) admitted to not having undergone any form of hand hygiene training within the past year. Only 78 students (23.4%) have been through frequent hand hygiene training frequently within this period. On universal precaution training within the same period, 150 students (45%) have not received any training while 72 students (21.6%) have frequently been exposed to the training. In addition, 21 students (6.3%) have undergone Needle stick injury training. Meanwhile, 258 students (77.5%) have not within the last 12 months. The same discrepancy is also seen in surgical scrubbing training where 192 students (57.7%) have not undergone any, having only 30 students (9%) admitting to such training.

Conclusion: With clinical medical students having the most exposure to infectious agents during their training, and considering that they are still in their formative years as future clinicians, this study assessed their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding the four major components of Infection control measures (ICMs).

Abstract