Operational definition: Lack of skills & knowledge evidenced by the inability to make an inaccurate assessment and nursing diagnosis is associated with low adherence in nurses.
The nurse participants in this study cited another factor that may lower adherence to standard precautions of infection; lack of skills & knowledge which lead to the inability to make a diagnosis and inaccurate assessment lead to low adherence.
The following quotations illustrate this finding:
“Knowledge deficit: failure to make a prompt nursing diagnosis: informed by patient assessment and findings… ..If a nurse does not perform an initial accurate patient assessment, even daily. She /he will miss taking precautionary …show more content…
4.3.2.2.2 Category 1: Behavioural characteristics
Operational definition: Behavioural characteristics such as Laziness, shortcuts, ignorance and rushing on duty impact on adherence to standard precautions of infection prevention and control.
The participants in this study explained how the behavioural aspects such as laziness, ignorance, shortcuts during practice and rushing through work interfere with adherence to standard precautions. The impact was demonstrated in the quotes below:
“Some nurses are just lazy to work” (P 15).
“They are always in rush. They don’t want to do the right things” (P7).
“Sometimes some nurses don’t want to do it and take shortcuts” (P28).
Melo et al, 2006 confirmed that cognitive, emotional and behavioural features are directly associated with non-adherence to standard precautions.
4.3.2.3 Theme 3: Inadequate provision of equipment and personal protective equipment
The categories and subcategories of factors related to the inadequate provision of equipment and personal protective are summarised in Table …show more content…
Reda et al (2010) also established that insufficient supply of Personal Protective Equipment leads to lower adherence to Standard precautions (SPs).
4.3.2.4 Theme 4: Inappropriate work conditions
Table 4.5 Present summary of the categories and subcategories of factors related to inappropriate work conditions.
Table 4.6: Factors related to inappropriate work conditions
Categories subcategories
Lack of time -Omissions
- characteristics of the job Reduced teams - shortage of staff
Excessive workload -Patient traffic flow
-exhaustion
4.3.2.4.1 Category 1: Lack of time
Operational definition: Lack of time is related to conditions such as the omission of some measures, work characteristics and a lot of emergencies.
The participants commented that lack of time can lead to some exclusion of some precaution measures. They also indicated that work schedules (time) are influenced by characteristics of the job and emergency situations (such as hypoxia). The nurses indicated that sometimes they come across situations of life or death and end up omitting SPS to save lives. These findings were illustrated by the following quotations: