• Yee Gyung Kwak, Sang-Oh Lee, Tae Hyong Kim, Eun Ju Choo, Min-Hyok Jeon, Jae-Bum Jun, Kyung-Mi Kim, Jae Sim Jeong, and Yang Soo Kim.
• Department of Infectious Diseases, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Republic of Korea.
• Int J Nurs Pract. 2012 Feb 1;18(1):77-83.

AbstractThis study was performed to compare compliance with standard precautions for the use of multidose vials (MDVs) and fingerstick devices in emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units (ICUs). Between December 2007 and February 2008, 389 nurses from the EDs or ICUs of six university-affiliated hospitals in Korea were asked to complete the questionnaire. A total of 338 (86.9%) nurses completed the survey, corresponding to 159 of 184 ED and 179 of 205 ICU nurses. A comparison of MDV use in EDs and ICUs indicated a significant difference only in disinfection of the rubber septum of heparin vials; 88.1% of ED nurses and 96.6% of ICU nurses stated that they always disinfected the rubber septum of heparin vials whenever drawing medication (P = 0.003). The use of separate fingerstick devices for each patient (71.7% vs. 54.5%) and disinfection of these devices after each use (36.5% vs. 26.0%) were more common in ED nurses. The rate of good hand hygiene was lower in ED nurses, both before (43.7% vs. 74.3%) and after (64.6% vs. 91.6%) the use of fingerstick devices (P < 0.001 for both). There is a need to improve compliance with standard precautions, especially hand hygiene, in EDs.© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

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