Sarcouncil Journal of Medicine and Surgery

Abstract: Infection control in perioperative care is essential to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) and achieve better patient outcomes. The presented study attempted to evaluate the knowledge, self-reported compliance, and predictors of the infection control practices among the perioperative healthcare workers and to estimate training uptake and guideline awareness in the various occupational groups. In the cross-sectional study, the sample comprised 230 perioperative healthcare workers, such as specialized surgeons, resident surgeons, nurses (diploma and less than diploma), anesthesia staff, and assistant personnel. The data were gathered with the help of a structured questionnaire that included demographic data, a history of training, awareness of the guidelines, infection control practices, and a score on knowledge. In general, training on infection control was provided to 30.9 percent of the participants, as well as a copy of the national guideline was provided to 11.3 percent of participants. Occupational differences in knowledge were highly significant: nurses (17.217.3/21) and specialized surgeons (17.2/21) had the highest scores, and assistant staff (6.3/21) and anesthesia assistants (9.2/11) had the lowest scores. Basic practices (e.g., mask use 99.1% and short nails 99.1%) were highly self-reported, whilst appropriate preoperative shaving (53.1% used an electric shaver) and laundering scrub suits within the same department (23.0%). The independent predictive factors of knowledge significant were years of experience to resident surgeons (p=0.018; assistant staff, p=0.030) and background training (below-diploma nurses, p=0.035). Infection control training and dissemination of guidelines and knowledge on the part of perioperative staff, specifically anesthesia and assistant staff, have significant gaps. Although some of the simplest compliance indicators are also high, specific education intervention is urgently required to low-scoring occupational groups to enhance the general perioperative infection prevention.