A Study Of Infection Prevention In Accident And Emergency Department Of Kampala International University Teaching Hospital In Ishaka Municipality Bushenyi District, Western Uganda.

Abstract

A study was conducted in Kampala International University- Teaching Hospital accident and

emergency department between July 2013 to October 2013 to assess the awareness and practises

of infection prevention amongst health care workers at their work place. The specific objectives

of this study were to assess the practices of the staff in emergency rooms on the standard

protocols observed in infections prevention, to identify the roles played by the administration in

infection control in the emergency room, to identify the challenges that staff undergo during

infection control in accident and emergency department and to establish the availability and use

of Post Exposure Prophylaxsis (PEP) in HIV infection prevention among staff.

The study found out that (77.8%), of the respondents in the department used personal

protective equipments, only (21) 46% of respondents had access to infection control policy

guidelines available in their department, the most common challenge of infection control was the

dysfunctional infection control committee (36.1%), and that superficial injuries with body fluid

was the most common emergency(45.5%) and 75% of those who suffered from them had

access to Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV.

Evidence gathered from this study suggests that the infection control practices in

Kampala International University Teaching Hospital accident and emergency department were

relatively adequate given that each and every member of staff was consciously cautious about his

or her safety when attending to patients. The roles of hospital administration in policy

formulation and implementations were suboptimal, the lack of supervision of infection control

was high and that Post Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV was being implemented according to the

national guidelines to the victims of occupational exposure at the work place including needle

stick injuries and accidental exposure to potentially infectious waste.

And then it recommended that healthcare workers should be provided with adequate

relevant personal protection gear, thorough supervision and continuing medical education, staff

should be encouraged to make use of the personal protection gear and practises such as proper

hand washing before and after attending to patients, colour coded bins should be provided for

proper waste disposal, the administration should update infection control policies, avail them to

departments and integrate the implementations of these policies to environmental engineering,

promote an effective infection control committee and sub committees in each department and

there is therefore need for more sensitization of health workers on infection prevention and post exposure prophylaxis for HIV for health workers.