Peri-Operative Nurses’ Knowledge on Surgical Site Infection Prevention and Adherence to WHOs Guidelines in Selected Hospitals in Oshimili South Local Government Area, Delta State

Surgical operations are vital procedures in the healthcare delivery system and are becoming one of the most significant causes of mortality and morbidity; high-quality evidence supports several measures to prevent surgical site infection that should be applied with high compliance. The broad aim of the study was to determine perioperative nurses' knowledge on surgical site infections, prevention and adherence to WHO guidelines in Oshimili South LGA of Delta. Cross-sectional survey was conducted on 100 perioperative nurses within the selected hospitals in Oshimili South LGA of Delta State. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics. The study revealed that the majority (76%) of the respondents were females, most of the respondents (46%) had BNSC, and a significant number of the respondents 34.0% had 6-10 years of working experience. More than half of the respondents (60%) considered preoperative showers with antiseptics to be cost effective in preventing surgical site infection, 96.0% of the participants removed jewelry, artificial nails and nail polish reduces the incidence of surgical site infection, and 55% of the respondents also agreed to puncture rate of surgical gloves correlates with the incidence of surgical site infection. The majority of the respondents with a mean score 3.71 utilized strategies such as use of aseptic techniques during surgical wound dressing, 3.58 washed their hands before wearing surgical gloves, while 3.63 sterilized dressing materials before cleaning surgical wounds followed by washing hands before and after changing wound dressing. Respondents with a mean score of 3.56 used face masks during cleaning surgical wound dressing for the prevention of surgical site infections, good level of adherence to WHO’s pre-operative guidelines such as washing hands before wearing the surgical gloves, strict adherence to asepsis, surgical consciousness, counting of surgical swabs, sutures, instruments and needles after surgery. 3.36 identified inadequate facilities such as sterilizing equipment and work demand was noted as the challenge with a mean score of 3.17 that perioperative nurses in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State encountered. Conclusively, the knowledge of surgical site infection prevention significantly and positively influenced prevention strategies of surgical site infection used by perioperative nurses in the hospital. It is therefore recommended that continued in-service educational programs should be conducted by the hospital organization to update the evidence based knowledge and practices of nurses.