Infecção relacionada à assistência à saúde : conhecimento, habilidade e atitude de acadêmicos de enfermagem e medicina

Abstract

Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI) are complications resulting from patient handling at health services, which have turned into an important care focus in recent decades and represent an important public health problem, due to the fact that they are preventable through simple care acts like hand washing. The aim in this study was to characterize the knowledge, skills and attitudes of nursing and medical students about HCAI. A descriptive and analytical observation study was undertaken in the undergraduate programs in nursing and medicine offered at a federal public university in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil. Data were collected between September and December 2011, in a non-casual and judgment sample of 61 students, 28 from the nursing program (6th semester) and 33 from the medicine (7th semester). Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and an observation instrument. For the statistical processing of the data, the software SPSS was used, and the Chi-Square test was applied to measure the correlation between knowledge, skills and attitudes among nursing and medical students. The ethical premises of resolution 196/96 were complied with. The study group was 70.5% female, with a mean age of 22.6 years (± 1.9). Most students indicated they had contact with the theme HCAI in their undergraduate program, 100% in nursing and 87.9% in medicine, but informed that the contents addressed were only partially sufficient for the sake of professional performance with emphasis on this theme. As observed, the knowledge of most nursing and medical students about HCAI is good; concerning attitude, 100% of the nursing and 93.9% of the medical students are interested in enhancing their knowledge about HCAI; with regard to attitude, 100% of the nursing and 93.9% of the medical students are interested in expanding their knowledge about HCAI: only 35.7% of nursing and 15.1% of medical students employed the correct hand washing technique. In conclusion, nursing and medical students tend to graduate with deficient knowledge and skills about HCAI, as the contents addressed during their undergraduate program do not produce solid knowledge, resulting in deficient skills to prevent HCAI in patient care, and do not arouse interest in assuming an attitude to gain further knowledge about the theme.