Factors influencing nurse compliance with Standard Precautions.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to blood and bodily fluids represents a significant occupational risk for nurses. The most effective means of preventing bloodborne pathogen transmission is through adherence to Standard Precautions (SP). Despite published guidelines on infection control and negative health consequences of noncompliance, significant issues remain around compliance with SP to protect nurses from bloodborne infectious diseases, including hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV. METHODS: A descriptive correlational study was conducted that measured self-reported compliance with SP, knowledge of HCV, and perceived susceptibility and severity of HCV plus perceived benefits and barriers to SP use. Relationships between the variables were examined. Registered nurses (N = 231) working in ambulatory settings were surveyed. RESULTS: Fewer than one-fifth (17.4%) of respondents reported compliance with all 9 SP items. Mean score for correct responses to the HCV knowledge test was 81%. There was a significant relationship between susceptibility of HCV and compliance and between barriers to SP use and compliance. CONCLUSIONS: This study explored reasons why nurses fail to adopt behaviors that protect them and used the Health Belief Model for the theoretical framework. It concentrated on SP and HCV because more than 5 million people in the United States and 200 million worldwide are infected with HCV, making it 1 of the greatest public health threats faced in this century. Understanding reasons for noncompliance will help determine a strategy for improving behavior and programs that target the aspects that were less than satisfactory to improve overall compliance. It is critical to examine factors that influence compliance to encourage those that will lead to total compliance and eliminate those that prevent it.

Protostelids from tropical forests, woodlands and deserts in Australia.

Most of what is known about the distribution of protostelids is limited to results from surveys carried out in North and Central America. To increase our knowledge about protostelid diversity and distribution we surveyed protostelids from 12 study sites in northern Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia during May-Jun 2003. Aerial litter and ground litter samples were randomly collected along a 200 m transect at each site. Study sites ranged from tropical forests to deserts. We recovered 10 species and two apparently undescribed species from samples of aerial (dead but still attached plant parts) and ground litter. Samples from a woodland site characterized by intermediate moisture conditions had the greatest species richness, followed by samples from dry woodland, tropical forest and desert sites. When species richness for a particular microhabitat was considered, samples of aerial litter yielded more species than samples of ground litter. Percentages of samples colonized with protostelids were similar for the aerial and ground litter microhabitats within a given habitat type except for dry woodlands, in which aerial litter samples were characterized by higher numbers of species than ground litter samples. Two species (Protostelium mycophaga and Soliformovum irregularis) that in temperate North America are associated with aerial litter microhabitats also were recovered from aerial litter in dry habitats in Australia. Schizoplasmodiopsis pseudoendospora, a North American temperate ground litter species, was equally abundant in aerial litter and ground litter in Australia. This study is the first of its kind for protostelid ecology in Australia and the most extensive study of protostelids in the southern hemisphere. These data complement ongoing research on protostelid distribution from around the world.