Evaluation of Compliance with Standard Precautions and Burnout Levels of Nurses working in a University Hospital Standard Precautions and Burnout Levels of Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Standard precautions aim to prevent the transmission and control the spread of infectious agents from infected or colonized patients to other people and healthcare personnel. It is thought that nurses' compliance with standard precautions is affected by many factors such as age, gender, education level, professional experience, equipment and personnel status, as well as negative emotional states caused by work intensity and loss of motivation. The loss of physical and emotional strength and motivation is defined as burnout, and its prevalence is increasing among healthcare workers. Our study aimed to evaluate the compliance of nurses working in a university hospital with standard precautions and their burnout levels. Material Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on nurses working at EskişehirOsmangazi University Hospital between January 2022, and May 2022. The study group consisted of 392 of 500 nurses working in the hospital who agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire form that utilized the literature. In our study, the "Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale" (CSPS) was used to determine the level of compliance with standard precautions and the "Maslach Burnout Scale" was used to determine the level of burnout. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis tests and Spearman Correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Of the participants, 83.4% were female, and 16.6% were male. Their ages ranged between 22 and 58 years, with a mean of 31.49±7.5 years. The scores of the nurses on the CSPS ranged from 0 to 19, with a mean of 13.7±3.3 (median: 14) points. It was found that women, those with a total working period of 5 years or more, and those who received any training on infectious disease prevention methods had higher scores on the CSPS (p<0.05 for each). It was determined that there was a weak negative correlation between the scores obtained by the nurses from the CSPS and the scores obtained from the emotional burnout and depersonalization sub-dimensions, and a weak positive correlation between the scores obtained from the personal achievement sub-field. Conclusion: The study showed that nurses' level of compliance with standard precautions was moderate, and some variables affected the level of compliance with standard precautions. It was thought that the compliance of healthcare workers with standard precautions would increase further with motivations such as updating the knowledge of healthcare workers with continuous in-service trainings and improving working conditions.