Assessment of Proper Utilization of Personal Protective Equipmnets Among Health Care Professionals at Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina Nigeria

Abstract

Healthcare workers due to the nature of their work are at higher risk of acquiring healthcare associated infections (HAI). The proper and consistent use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is considered a cost-effective technique for combating HAIs. However, the level of healthcare professionals' compliance and proper utilization of PPE at Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina, Nigeria is not known. Hence, the present study is aimed at evaluating the proper utilization of PPE among Healthcare Professionals at the Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina, Nigeria. Across-sectional study design was used to obtain information from health professionals. The Study instrument was structured self-administered questionnaire. Stratified random sampling method was used to select the study population. A total of 386 health workers participated in the study with 34.4% females and 65.6% male,54.4% were within the age range of 31 - 40 years. Most of the respondents were nurses (20.3%), and scientific officers (24.7%).More than half (55%) of the participants reported using PPE regularly and always adhering to recommended guidelines. Moreover, the availability and accessibility of PPE are the main enablers for the compliance for the use of PPE by the respondents. On the contrary, the major barriers to the use of PPE are time constraint, lack of adequate training and low perception of risk. The study revealed that more than half of healthcare workers use PPE regularly. However, significant gaps are observed in terms of accessibility, adherence, and regular training. Also, discomfort, time constraints, and limited refresher training emerged as significant barriers to the proper utilization of PPE, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to improve PPE utilization and safety standards.