KNOWLEDGE AND ADHERENCE OF THE NURSE TO STANDARD PRECAUTIONS IN CRITICAL UNITS

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the knowledge and adherence of nurses to the standard precautions in critical care units. Method: descriptive and cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, with the population of nurses from a university hospital in the Distrito Federal, Brazil. For data collection, three instruments were used. A semi-structured questionnaire with identification and occupational data of nurses, the questionnaire to evaluate knowledge to standard precautions and the Questionnaire of adherence to standard precautions. Descriptive analysis was used with absolute and relative frequency values. Results: the population was composed of 40 participating nurses, 75% were female, with an average age of 32.5 years, ranging from 24 to 50 years. Professionals with five or more years of training (67.5%) predominated, 25 (62.5%) had only one job and had experience in the area of critical patient care for more than three years. Although with a high percentage of accuracy, with regard to the moments that required hand hygiene, this frequency was 97.5%. Gloves are always used for intramuscular or subcutaneous injection by 67.5% of professionals, but 17.5% still consider it unnecessary to wear disposable caps and surgical shoe covers. The use of sharps, handling and reporting of occupational accidents were not performed as expected. Conclusion: gaps were identified in relation to the knowledge and adherence of nurses in units that provide care to critical patients of a university hospital with regard to standard precautions.