ADESÃO E FATORES DIFICULTADORES DOSPROFISSIONAIS DE ENFERMAGEM ÀS PRECAUÇÕES-PADRÃO DURANTE A PANDEMIA DA COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Standard precautions (PP) are measures that aim to protect the health professional and guarantee safe patient care. PPs include: hand hygiene, use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and safe practices in the handling of sharps and potentially contaminated materials, in order to avoid Health Care Related Infections (IRAS). The nursing team must have greater knowledge and skills about PP in order to be safe in their work environment. Objective: To analyze the adherence and complicating factors of nursing professionals to standard precautions. Materials and method: Descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical study, developed in two state public teaching hospitals in the central-west and northeast regions of Brazil, from September to October 2020. The inclusion criteria were to exercise the function of nurse, technician or auxiliary nursing and act in direct assistance. To describe the demographic and professional variables and the use of PPE in nursing care, two questionnaires were developed by the researchers. To identify the adherence scores to PP, the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale (CSPS-PB) was used. The data were analyzed using software R. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS-MS) with opinion 4.006.576 / CAAE: 29993720.0.0000.0021. Results: The sample consisted of 348 professionals, mostly female (n = 310 / 89.1%) with an average age of 39 years (SD ± 9) in the role of nursing technician (n = 210 / 60.3%). The median score for adherence to PP was 15.2 (Minimum = 15; Maximum of 20), which indicates a compliance with PP of 65%. Nursing technicians had a higher score (15.44, SD ± 2.6). It was found that the older the age, the greater the adherence to PP. Among the difficulties in adhering to PP, the most cited factors were: urgency to perform the procedure (n = 123 / 35.4%), discomfort (n = 121 / 34.9%) and discomfort in using some PPE (n = 112 / 32.2%). Professionals provided assistance to a patient with COVID-19, 295 of whom 233 (79%) had available all PPE and 190 (64.4%) reported feeling some discomfort and 105 (35.6%) had a skin lesion. 80.3% (n = 237) received training at the institution where they work. As for the knowledge of the correct PPE placement sequence, only 11 (3.7%) did not know, whereas the correct PPE removal was seven (2.4%). Conclusion: Adherence to SP by nursing professionals needs to be encouraged, given the percentage of adherence. This study can contribute to direct strategies to encourage compliance with PP, thus improving the safety of professionals and patients.