title: Knowledge of Good Blood Culture Sampling Practice among Healthcare Staffs in An Emergency Department - Are We Getting It Right?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although a vital test, blood culture is often plagued with the problem of contamination and false results, especially in a chaotic emergency department setting. The objectives of this pilot study is to find out the level of understanding among healthcare staffs in emergency department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) regarding good blood culture sampling practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  All healthcare staffs in emergency department, HUSM who consented to this study were given a set of selfadministered anonymous questionnaire to fill.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half (53.1%) of the 64 participants are emergency medicine residents. Majority of them (75%) have been working in the emergency medicine, HUSM for more than 2 years. More than half of them were able to answer correctly the amount of blood volume needed for culture in adult and pediatric patients. When asked what are the factors required to improve the true yield as well as to reduce the risk of culture contamination, the four commonest answers given were observing proper aseptic technique during blood sampling, donning sterile glove, proper hand scrubbing as well as ensuring the sterility of the equipments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that there is a lack of proper knowledge of good blood culture sampling practice among our healthcare staffs in emergency department.
authors.affiliation: Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Medical Sciences, Emergency Medicine Department, 16150 Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. cksheng74@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mohd Hashairi
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Jusoh
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.forename: N A R
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Nik Hisamuddin
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Siti Asma
mesh_terms: D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires