Explaining the Performance of Nurses in Order to Prevent Nosocomial Infections in Urmia City Hospitals: Application of the Health Belief Model

Nosocomial infections (NIs) are one of the medical, social, and economic problems in developing countries and can be prevented. Studying the etiology of NI is one of the most essential activities for designing prevention programs. The purpose of this study was to explain the constructs of the health belief model (HBM) regarding nurses' compliance with standard precautions for the prevention of NI in Urmia hospitals.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 224 nurses of Urmia hospitals who were selected by employing the multi-stage method. The data collection tool was a questionnaire containing demographic characteristics, an HBM questionnaire associated with the prevention of NI, and questions related to the observance of nurses in the field of standard precautions to prevent NI. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods in SPSS software version 22.

The results of this study showed the average performance score of nurses in relation to adopting preventive behaviors against NI (71.97 ± 11.08) as acceptable. Also, the results of the study showed that among the constructs of the HBM, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cue to action, and self-efficacy are the most important predictors of adopting preventive behaviors against NI with a variance of 52% among the nurses.

According to the results of this study, the constructs of self-efficacy, perceived barriers, cue to action, perceived benefits, and perceived intensity are, respectively, the strongest predictors of compliance with standard precautions to prevent hospital infections. Therefore, the results of this study can be useful for health service providers in planning and designing interventions, and determining appropriate strategies for the prevention and control of NI.