Newly graduated nurses’ knowledge about Specific Precautions in the pre-pandemic of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Objective

To assess the knowledge of newly graduated nurses about Specific Precautions/Isolation measures.

Method

A cross-sectional descriptive-exploratory study with a quantitative approach was conducted in a private hospital in São Paulo in February 2019. The researcher approached the nurses waiting for the “Junior Nurse” position selection process to participate in the survey. The participants answered a validated instrument with 29 multiple-choice questions, divided into five thematic categories. A score of 7.0 (from zero to 10) was defined as the cut-off point. The R Core statistical package and the lme4 for generalized mixed models were used for data analysis, with a significance level of 5%.

Results

190 newly graduated nurses participated in the study, with an overall knowledge of Specific Precautions score of 5.82, with the highest mean (7.9) in the “Personal Protective Equipment” category. In the other four categories, the nurses scored below 7.0, with the lowest score (4.35) in the “Care for the environment”.

Conclusion and Implications for the practice

The study showed a deficiency of Specific Precautions knowledge among newly graduated nurses, with implications for the patients’ and healthcare professionals’ safety from graduation practice (internship) to the beginning of their professional career.

Keywords:
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Communicable Diseases Control; Nurses; Cross Infection; Patient Isolation