Nurses’ attıtudes to the cleanıng of pulse oxımeter probes

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to determine nurses'attitudes toward cleaning pulse oximetry probes inTurkey.Materials and Methods: This research was carriedout descriptively between January and May 2023.This study was conducted with 319 nurses with 93%power. The questionnaire consists of 12 questionsabout the participants' demographic characteristicsand attitudes toward cleaning the saturation devices.Results: All nurses (n=319) stated that saturationdevices should be cleaned. It was found that 91.5%(n=292) of the nurses stated that saturation deviceswere a source of infection for healthcare workers,and 95.3% (n=304) stated that they were one of the causes of hospital infections. It was stated that 27.0%of the nurses (n=86) performed saturation cleaningseveral times a month, and 51.1% (n=163) stated thatthe substances they used to clean the saturationdevices were insufficient.Conclusions: It is seen that the nurses highly agreethat the saturation devices should be cleaned and thatit is a source of infection for patients and staff.However, despite this, it is seen that the frequency ofcleaning the saturation device is low, and there arequite different cleaning frequencies from each other.