Abstract

Background: Health care-associated infection (HCAI), also referred to as "nosocomial" or "hospital" infection, is an infection occurring in a patient during the process of care in a hospital or other health care facility which was not present or incubating at the time of admission.

Material & Methods: A cross sectional study was carried over a period of two months in NICU settings of IGMC, Shimla. 15 staff nurses and 20 residents (Junior residents & Senior residents). Thus, sample size of 35 was covered.

Results: All of the staff were adequately qualified for the work in ICU although no. of staff was below standard for an ICU. Most of the staff was found to be aware of HCAI, hand hygiene, personal protection and BMW segregation but at the same time not all were practicing hand hygiene and personal protection all the time during patient care. Some of the staff were also found to be well trained in infection control measures. In fact, few were even not knowing about existence of HICC, ICP and ICG. All the shortcomings in infrastructure and staff increases the risk if HCAI as shown by previous studies.

Conclusion: Hand hygiene is of most important in preventing HCAI. But, unfortunately it is neglected in Indian setting specially in government setup where work load is in excess and lack of materials required for hand hygiene are lacking. Staff should be motivated to follow infection control guidelines, hand hygiene, personal protection, and trained enough, so that, this major problems of HCAI

Keywords: NICU, PICU, HCAI, Infection control, Knowledge, Awareness.