Ethics of hospital infection control: Knowledge and perception of healthcare workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Hospital infection prevention and control (IPC) ethics are an important yet neglected component of patient safety and wellbeing. The IPC program in a hospital is mainly focused to prevent the transmission of drug resistant organisms. Poor compliance of such program can lead to nosocomial infections and impaired patient’s safety, which is against the moral principles of ethics. Material and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital Rawalpindi affiliated with National University of Medical Sciences Rawalpindi. Semi structured, informal interviews were taken from health care workers, recorded and analyzed based on thematic analysis. Results: A total of 20 health care workers were selected and interviewed belonging to different specialties including two nurses. Majority of the participants had fairly good knowledge of hospital IPC but poor knowledge of ethical issues related to poor IPC practices. Autonomy was the dominant factor in compromised IPC practices. Conclusion: Ethics of hospital IPC is an important subject of patient safety and hospital success. It should be taught and incorporated in training at all the levels of medical education.