Correlation between nurses' knowledge and practices in prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) with UTI incidence in ICU.

BACKGROUND: The way of Foley insertion and required cares after that are key factors to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Nurses play the main role in catheter placement and care, so their knowledge and performance are important. This study aims to determine Correlation Between Nurses' Knowledge and Practices in prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infection with Urinary Tract Infection Incidence in Intensive Care Unit. METHODS: This correlational study was conducted with the cross-sectional method. 105 nurses from five Intensive Care Unit wards was selected with census sampling. The data about nurses' knowledge and practice to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection was collected through standard questionnaires with self-reporting. The incidence of Urinary Tract Infection in the last six months according to statistics recorded by the hospital infection control center was considered. The descriptive results of nurses' knowledge, their practice, Urinary Tract Infection prevalence, and the correlation between these factors was examined. RESULTS: The average work experience of nurses was 2.90 ± 1.57 years. Only 16.20% of nurses had taken part in workshops related to Urinary Tract Infection prevention. The average score of knowledge was 73.26, and for practice was 2.85 ± 0.37, which both were in a low level. The overall incidence of Urinary Tract Infection in the mentioned period was 2.99%. Urinary Tract Infection prevalence had an inverse and significant correlation with nurses' knowledge and practice, 0.461 and 0.491 respectively. CONCLUSION: Nurses' knowledge and practice to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection were at poor level. Therefore, considering the negative and significant correlation of these variables with incidence of Urinary Tract Infection in this study, it is required that nurses be trained about specialized trainings related to urinary catheter care. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.