Assessment of Knowledge and Preventive Practices on Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Nursing staff at a Tertiary Care Centre at Goa

Introduction: Latent tuberculosis infection presents with no symptoms. All nursing staff who work closely with patients must possess the appropriate knowledge and follow the right preventive practices to avoid latent tuberculosis infection. This study was carried out to assess knowledge and preventive practices on latent TB which will help in making recommendations for the control of TB infection among nursing staffs. Objective: To assess knowledge and preventive practices regarding latent Tuberculosis infection and to assess infection controlpractices among the nursing staff. Method: This was a facility based cross sectional study conducted among nurses who works in Outpatient departments and wards of tertiary care centre. A complete list of the participants was made, and data from all nurses employed in every ward and outpatient department of the hospital was collected using a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire. A sample size of 384 nurses was calculated using Cochrane formula with p=50% and simple random sampling was used. Results: Out of 384 nurses, 376 (97.9%) were females and 8 (2.1%) were males. Regarding prevention of latent tuberculosis, 327 (85.1%) nurses answered wearing of mask, followed by regular sterilisation of hospitals which was 281 (73.1%) nurses. Out of 384 nurses, 298 (77.6%) of them wear a mask while dealing with coughing patients. In this, 242 (81.3%) reported usage of a surgical mask while N95 mask is only used by 56 (18.7%) of them. Conclusion: Overall knowledge regarding latent tuberculosis was satisfactory among the nurses. Practice on infection control was not satisfactory.