Knowledge and practice toward hospital-acquired infections prevention and associated factors among nurses working at university referral hospitals in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, Ethiopia 2021

Objective: Hospital-acquired infection is higher in low- and middle-income countries because of inadequate knowledge of hospital-acquired infection prevention and poor adherence to standard infection prevention practices. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 randomly selected nurses working at university referral hospitals in Southern, Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region, Ethiopia from 01 to 30 April 2021. Data was collected by self-administer questionnaires. Multivariable binary logistic regressions were used to assess the association between the outcome variables and explanatory variables. The adjusted odds ratio was calculated and variables with a 95% confidence interval were declared as statistically significant. Results: The study found that 45.5% (95% confidence interval: 40.6%–50.4%) and 64.8% (95% confidence interval: 60.1%–69.5%) of nurses had good knowledge and practices toward hospital-acquired infection prevention, respectively. Being male (adjusted odd ratio: 2.2, 1.41–3.40), having a degree and above in nursing (adjusted odd ratio: 3.6, 1.73–7.38), having more than 5 years of work experience (adjusted odd ratio: 2.0, 1.24–3.26), having training on infection prevention (adjusted odd ratio: 2.6, 1.58–4.37) and adequate materials supplies (adjusted odd ratio: 2.2, 1.08–4.45) had associated with nurses’ knowledge about hospital-acquired infection prevention. On the other hand, having a degree and above in nursing (adjusted odd ratio: 1.98, 1.07–3.66), consistent water supply (adjusted odd ratio: 3.4, 1.58–7.30), and being aware of the existence of infection prevention guidelines in their institution (adjusted odd ratio: 1.80, 1.14–2.87) had associated with good practices of nurses toward hospital-acquired infections prevention. Conclusion: Less than half of the nurses had adequate knowledge and approximately two-thirds of nurses had good practice for hospital-acquired infection prevention.