title: The multidrug-resistant bacteria attitude questionnaire: validity and understanding of responsibility for infection control in Swedish registered district, haematology and infection nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the discriminative and construct validity of the Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire and to study registered nurses' knowledge of, behaviour toward and emotional responses to patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria in relation to how they understand their own, managers' and politicians' responsibility for adherence to preventive measures for infection control.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Multidrug-resistant organisms are a global problem and an essential topic in healthcare regarding patient safety improvement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive and correlational cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected in a non-random sample consisting of 397 registered nurses; district, haematology or infection registered nurses. One-way analysis of variance and independent t-tests were used for comparisons and a principal component analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Discriminative and construct validity were supported, as the infection registered nurses generally had higher scores on knowledge, behaviour and emotional response, compared with district registered nurses and haematology registered nurses and the three-factor solution was confirmed. Registered nurses with higher scores on knowledge and emotional response attributed greater responsibility to themselves and to politicians. The Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire was translated using a forward-back translation process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties. Insufficient knowledge of, behaviour toward and emotional response to patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria were described, but the registered nurses did estimate their own responsibility for adherence to preventive measures for infection control as being great or very great.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a considerable need to improve knowledge, behaviour and emotional response regarding infection prevention measures among healthcare workers. The hospital management are responsible for such improvements and the Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Attitude Questionnaire is useful in identifying such needs, as it has adequate psychometric properties and is able to discriminate between groups. Evaluation among healthcare workers may indicate where to situate additional training, as this is of clinical significance for safe care.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Development, Uppsala University/County Council of Gävleborg, Gävle, Sweden. maria.lindberg@lg.se
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: Bernice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Skytt
authors.forename: Marieann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Högman
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden