Shin, H. Jeon, H., Chun, H., Muratbekova, M., Sultashev, A., Babalieva, Z., Mamysheva, A., Isakova, Zh., & Choi, S. (2023, July 20-23). Development of infection prevention and control competency of nursing in Kyrgyzstan: A global collaborative study [Poster Presentation]. The 34th International Nursing Research Congress, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is considered the worst worldwide healthcare disaster in the recent century and it is not exception for the Kyrgyz Republic. During the peak period of COVID-19 in July 2020, so-called Black July in the Kyrgyz Republic, a quarter of confirmed cases were healthcare professionals. With this devastating incident, the need for strengthening the infection prevention and control competencies of healthcare workers was emphasized. Among healthcare professionals, nurses are essential workers who not only take care of patients and their families but also engage in infection control system establishment, guideline development, monitoring and evaluation, management of resources and environments, education, cooperation. However, the level of competency for infection prevention and control of nurses is different from situation in each country and nurses should enhance their competency based on the actual requirement. This study aims to explore the infection prevention and control competencies of nurses in the Kyrgyz Republic and identify nurses’ recognition on those competencies. 

Methods: An explorative sequential mixed methods study design was used. A Kyrgyz-Korean research team has performed this global collaborative study since April 1 2022. Qualitative data were collected through ten times of focus group interview with 57 participants including nurses and nurse managers in the different healthcare facilities from June to August, 2022. And then, from June to November 2022, we conducted an online and offline survey for quantitative data collection. A total 293 nurses and nurse managers were completed the questionnaire. The essential infection control competencies tool developed by Liu, et al. (2014) were used to explore the infection prevention and control competency of nurses in the Kyrgyz Republic. Qualitative content analysis and Importance-Performance analysis were conducted. Qualitative and quantitative data were compared, analyzed, and integrated through narratives.

Results: Nurses narrated cleaning/disinfection/sterilization, hygiene procedure, blood specimen collection, hygiene education, hygiene practice, disinfection of medical instrument, medical waste management, safety incidence report, sanitation, and safety measures were major roles and functions of nurse.  The average scores of importance of overall infection prevention control competency was 1.21 ± 0.85 and the average scores of performance was 1.23 ± 0.79. The IPA shown that four subdomains which is hand hygiene (Importance = 1.54, P = 1.46), standard precaution (Importance =1.50, Performance = 1.49), cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization (Importance = 1.48, Performance = 1.42), Personal protective equipment (Importance = 1.49, Performance = 1.36) was located in the high importance and high performance quadrant. In contrast, the subcategory of basic microbiology (Importance = 1.35, Performance = 1.22) and critical assessment skill (Importance = 1.41, Performance = 1.34) showed the low importance and low performance quadrants.

Conclusion: As essential healthcare professionals who have important responsibilities for infection prevention and control and safe patient care on their routine work, nurses should prepare for enough level of infection prevention and control competency.  In this study, we identified the core competency for infection prevention and control in the Kyrgyz Republic and it might guide establishment of infection control standards for nursing and development of nursing education curriculum.