title: Roles of infection control nurses in community hospitals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the roles of infection control nurses (ICNs) and to detect problems, obstacles during work and needs for support in community hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive study, data from interview and questionnaire survey of 2 ICN from HA awarded hospitals and 146 IC nurses from hospitals applied for HA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From April to May 2002, questionnaires were returned for 115 (81.56%) plus 7 interviews for a total of 122 samples. The practiced HA IC roles included counseling (86.5%), surveillance (83.1%), administration (82.8%), employee health (82%), education (80%), quality development (76.3%), epidemic investigation (72.2%) and research (10.4%). The major problems and obstacles included inadequate IC knowledge, multiple responsibilities, inadequate cooperation, less administrative support, inadequate budget and documents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study suggested that the IC research role was the least done because of inadequate knowledge, too heavy work load and lack of administrative support.
authors.affiliation: Tasala Hospital, Nakorn Sri Thammarat.
authors.forename: Laddawan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jantarasri
authors.forename: Poonsap
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soparatana
authors.forename: Wanchai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Moongtui
authors.forename: Worapot
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tantisiriwat
authors.forename: Somwang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Danchaivijitr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016357:Infection Control Practitioners; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007587:Job Description; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D016134:Organizational Policy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013785:Thailand