Background: On June 11, 2009 the World Health Organization announced the H1N1 global pandemic and raised the influenza A alert level from 5 to 6. Purpose: This paper intended to investigate nurse knowledge about H1N1 and their compliance with precautions in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 446 nurses as subjects at a regional teaching hospital in central Taiwan. A total of 262 questionnaires were retrieved with an effective response rate of 58.7%. Results: Most subjects (98%) were female in the 21-30 years of age range; a majority held either a college or university degree; and the average seniority was 10 years. This study indicated average scores for Taiwan nurse knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions is 4.71 (maximum score 6) and 34.54 (maximum score 44), respectively. Overall, nurse familiarity with H1N1 vaccine manufacturing is insufficient. Study results indicate that source of knowledge and work unit significantly correlate with the total score of knowledge (p<.05); age, job description, seniority and work unit differ significantly from compliance with precautions (p<.05). There is no significant correlation between knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions. Conclusion: Results suggest that the subject knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions against H1N1 are insufficient. In addition to improving the working knowledge of H1N1 among nursing staffs the authors recommended healthcare units further examine the causes of failure in this regard in order to create a safer healthcare environment and use manpower resources as effectively as possible.
Background: On June 11, 2009 the World Health Organization announced the H1N1 global pandemic and raised the influenza A alert level from 5 to 6. Purpose: This paper intended to investigate nurse knowledge about H1N1 and their compliance with precautions in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 446 nurses as subjects at a regional teaching hospital in central Taiwan. A total of 262 questionnaires were retrieved with an effective response rate of 58.7%. Results: Most subjects (98%) were female in the 21-30 years of age range; a majority held either a college or university degree; and the average seniority was 10 years. This study indicated average scores for Taiwan nurse knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions is 4.71 (maximum score 6) and 34.54 (maximum score 44), respectively. Overall, nurse familiarity with H1N1 vaccine manufacturing is insufficient. Study results indicate that source of knowledge and work unit significantly correlate with the total score of knowledge (p<.05); age, job description, seniority and work unit differ significantly from compliance with precautions (p<.05). There is no significant correlation between knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions. Conclusion: Results suggest that the subject knowledge about H1N1 and compliance with precautions against H1N1 are insufficient. In addition to improving the working knowledge of H1N1 among nursing staffs the authors recommended healthcare units further examine the causes of failure in this regard in order to create a safer healthcare environment and use manpower resources as effectively as possible.