International journal of Nursing Education & Research

EFFECT OF SIMULATION ON NURSE’S COMPETENCIES REGARDING INFECTION CONTROL PRACTICES

C. Deborah Packiajothi

packiajothi@yahoo.co.in

Competencies, Simulation, Infection control practices, Hand hygiene

Major concern for health care workers is the danger attached to the spread of microorganisms that is infection from person to person and from place to place. Health –care associated Infections (HCAI) are the infections that constitute a health hazard which are life threatening. Breaking the chain of infection is the prime step in infection control. Of all the Infection control practices (ICP), hand hygiene (HH) is the effective way to prevent spread of infections.It is important that nurses strictly adhere to the HH practices to control infection in the hospital setting. Aim: To assess the effect of simulation based Instruction( SBI) on competencies of nurses regarding Infection control practices(ICP).Materials and methods: A quasi-experimental, time –series, nonequivalent control group design was adopted for the study. Sample size of 30 samples, 15 in experimental group and 15 in control group were selected for the study. The samples were selected by simple random sampling and purposive sampling method. The nurse’s competencies namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor were assessed using tools duly tested and proved to be valid and reliable. A structured questionnaire to assess the cognitive competency, likert scale to assess the affective competency and observation checklist to assess the psychomotor competency were used. Pretest was assessed followed by administration of the intervention, SBI where simulation technique was used and then posttest was assessed. Results: The results showed that in there was no significant difference in nurse’s competency scores between control and experimental group in pretest. But, there was a significant difference between control and experimental group in nurse’s competency scores in posttest 1and post test 2. This is attributed to the effectiveness of the intervention, SBI on nurse’s competencies in relation to ICP. Conclusion: Simulation is an effective method in enhancing the nurse’s competencies with regard to nurse’s clinical practice