Knowledge and Awareness of the Preventive Measures of Nosocomial Infections among Clinical Physiotherapy Students in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Nosocomial infections form a major worldwide public health problem despite advances the understanding of infections. This study was aimed to  determine the level of knowledge and awareness of the preventive measures of nosocomial infections among clinical physiotherapy students in  northern Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional survey with a total sample size of 75 students, recruited using convenience sampling technique.  The participants were clinical physiotherapy students of Bayero University, Kano in Kano State (n = 60) and University of Maiduguri in Borno State (n  = 15). The instruments that were usad for this study included a research proforma, a modified hospital-acquired infection knowledge questionnaire  and a modified hand hygiene questiounaire. Deseriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency were used to summarise  the data. Inferential statistic of Mann-Whitney U test as used to determine mean differences in knowledge based on gender of the participants at a  probability level of 0.05. There was no significant gender difference based on knowledge and awareness of the preventive measures of nosocomial  infections (U = 1.664; p = 0.096). There was no significant difference between the level of clinical physiotherapy students and the preventive  measures of nosocomial infections (U = - 1.067; p = 0.286). There was higher level of awareness of nosocomial infections than knowledge of the  preventive measures of nosocomial infections among the clinical physiotherapy students in northern Nigeria. It was concluded that majority of the  clinical physiotherapy students in northern Nigeria were aware of nosocomial infections. However, they are lacking in adequate knowledge of the preventive measures of such infections.