Abstract

Background: Health workers are at higher risk of infection with blood-borne viruses including human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus. Successful implementation of universal precaution can effectively control these infections in health-care setting.
Objective: To assess the practice of universal precautions among nurses and factors influencing its use in a tertiary-health center of Manipur.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the nursing staffs in a tertiary health-care center of Manipur from October 2011 to September 2013. Respondents were purposively selected, and data were collected using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as percentage was used to describe the findings. Result: Total respondents were 446 nurses. Response rate was 98%. Only 24% of the nurses always used gloves whenever contact with blood and body fluid was likely. Five in 100 nurses never washed hands after removing gloves. One-third of the nurses never used gown, 22% of the nurses never used mask, 69.3% never used goggles when blood and body fluid splash was likely. Seven in 10 of the respondents always recapped needles immediately after use. Majority of the respondents used sharp and liquid proof container as a method of disposal of sharp materials after removing needle (61.2%). But, three in 100 nurses mixed sharps with general waste, and around 2% of them threw sharps in open pail. Reasons behind not practicing universal precaution were work stress (10.3%), time constraint (28%), lack of supply of personal protective equipment (67%), lack of display of guidelines (2.5%), and emergency situations (4%). Conclusion: Practice of universal precaution was not satisfactory. Training of the health-care workers, proper equipment supply, posters displaying guidelines, and proper hospital policy of patient load management would significantly help both quantitatively and qualitatively for effective implementation of universal precaution in this premier health-care institution of Manipur.