There is a constant presence of occupational hazards as health care workers in general carry out their various clinical activities which are mostly exposure prone procedures in hospitals and other medical facilities. The study investigated the effects of a nurse-led intervention on practice of standard precautions among nurses in two selected tertiary hospitals in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative design, two group quasi-experimental method. The sample consisted of 256 nurses drawn via purposive sampling technique. Data were collected through structured adapted checklist. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.726. The data collected in this study were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test. Findings revealed that there was low practice of standard precautions among nurses in the intervention group as revealed by the mean score at pre-test was 9.79 equivalent to 40.79%, after intervention it was 76.33% equivalent to 18.32. This means nurse’s practice of standard precautions after post-test was high in intervention group unlike the control group which had low practice at pre and post. There was significant difference between pre and post-intervention knowledge of practice of standard precaution (knowledge gained=8.53; t=36.468; p=0.000< 0.05) among nurses in the intervention group while there was no difference in the control group (t=0.899; p=0.369>0.05). It was evident that nurse-led education programs on standard precautions can benefit nurses resulting in an increase in practice of standard precautions. It was recommended among others that an intensive and comprehensive educational initiative should be organized by nursing leaders and tailored to meeting the specific needs of nurses at all levels of nursing.

Keywords: Nurse-led Intervention, Standard Precautions, Practice,

Cite this article: