Knowledge and attitude of doctors and nurses regarding indication for catheterization and prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infection in a tertiary care hospital.
OBJECTIVE
Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is one of the most common health care acquired infection encountered in clinical practice. The present study was planned to assess the knowledge and attitude of health care providers regarding the indications for catheterization and methods of preventing CAUTI.


METHODS
A prospective questionnaire-based survey was done from March 2011 to August 2011. A structured questionnaire comprising of 41 items related to demographic details of the respondents, their knowledge regarding indications for catheterization and methods of preventing CAUTI was given to 54 doctors and 105 nurses. The response was evaluated for statistical correlation using a computer software.


RESULTS
The mean years of experience of the respondents in the health care setup was 6.8 years. Only 57% of the respondents could identify all the measures for prevention of CAUTI. The knowledge regarding the indication for catheterization though suboptimal was significantly better amongst the doctors as compared to nurses.


CONCLUSIONS
The knowledge regarding indication and preventive measures was suboptimal in our study group. There is a tremendous scope of improvement in catheterization practices in our hospital and education induced intervention would be the most appropriate effort toward reducing the incidence of CAUTI.
Department of Microbiology, ESIC Hospital and Dental College, Sector-15, New Delhi, India.
Manisha
M
Jain
Department of Microbiology, G.B Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Vinita
V
Dogra
Department of Microbiology, G.B Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Bibhabati
B
Mishra
Department of Microbiology, G.B Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Archana
A
Thakur
Department of Microbiology, G.B Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Poonam Sood
PS
Loomba
Catheter; health care personnel; knowledge; prevention; urinary tract infection