Compliance With Universal Precautions: Knowledgeand Behavior of Residents and Students in aDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology

摘要

Objectives:To assess the knowledge of universal precautions for the delivery and operating roomsby residents and students and to evaluate their use of universal precautions.Study Design:Obstetrics and gynecology (ob/gyn) residents (n = 30) and students (n = 31) froman inner-city, teaching hospital were polled by anonymous questionnaire to assess their knowledgeof the appropriate barrier equipment for certain ob/gyn procedures. To determine actual compliancewith universal precautions, 459 0b/gyn procedures were observed. We noted the use of appropriatebarrier equipment for each procedure: gloves for pelvic exam and face shields, gowns,gloves, and booties for vaginal delivery, cesarean delivery, and dilation and curettage. The TrueEpistat statistical software program was used to perform simple regression analysis.Results:Thirty residents (100%) knew the appropriate barrier equipment required for each typeof procedure performed. One student (<1%) did not know that booties were appropriate for thesurgical procedures. Rationale for lack of compliance with universal precautions elicited by thequestionnaire included time constraints (64%), inconvenience (52%), and presumption that patientwas not infected (34%).The observed rate of compliance with universal precautions by participants indicates that individualcompliance was inversely related to the years of experience (overall compliance rate ofstudents was 96%; for first-year residents, 92%, second-year residents, 89%, third-year residents,84%, fourth-year residents, 78%;r= -0.9918,P= 0.0009).Conclusions:Knowledge regarding universal precautions was nearly 100%, while overall observedcompliance was only 89%. Compliance with universal precautions was better among students(96%) than among residents (88%). Compliance with universal precautions was inverselyrelated to years of experience.