국립병원 간호사의 COVID-19 감염관리인식, 안전통제감, 노력보상불균형이 COVID-19 감염관리수행에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The prevalence of new infectious diseases such as SARS and MERS has increased awareness of the importance of infection control. Consequently, hospital infection control guidelines for the prevention and early containment of epidemics have been reinforced, and infection control by nurses in national hospitals, which are at the center of the national quarantine system, has become increasingly critical. This necessitates identification of the factors affecting the infection control performance of nurses in national hospitals. This study aimed to determine the effect of COVID-19 related infection control, safety control, and effort-reward imbalance on COVID-19 infection control performance. This study collected data from September 13, 2022 to November 21, 2022 through structured questionnaires from 122 nurses working at two COVID-19 dedicated national hospitals in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 26.0. Frequency analysis, percentage analysis, mean and standard deviation analysis, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression were performed, and the Scheffé test was performed for post-test verification.

The main results of this study are as follows: 1. Regarding participant demographics, 88.5% were female, average participant age was 40.2 years with most being in their 30s (42.6%). The highest level of education was a bachelor's degree (69.7 %), the average total clinical experience was 15.64 years with that of 44.3% being 10–20 years. Moreover, 86.1% were general nurses and 50.0% were general ward nurses. Most participants were married (73.8 %). In total, 116 nurses had experience in infection control education, and 25.4% of the respondents had a 6–12 month period of caring for COVID-19 patients. Both hospitals were equipped with negative-pressure isolation rooms.

2. The average score of COVID-19 related infection control awareness was 3.83 (±0.24) out of 4, safety control was 4.16 (±0.54) out of 5, effort-reward imbalance ratio was 1.2 (±0.31), and COVID-19 infection control performance was 3.56 (±038) out of 4.

3. There was a statistically significant difference in COVID-19 related infection control awareness (F=3.690, p<.05) and safety control (F=3.386, p<.05) according to clinical experience among participants. Regarding the level of COVID-19 infection control performance, a statistically significant difference was observed in the demographic variable of sex (t=2.516, p<.05). Males showed higher infection-control performance than females. Nurses showed no significant differences in effort-reward imbalance according to general characteristics.

4. Correlation analysis was conducted to identify the correlation between COVID-19 infection control awareness, safety control, and COVID-19 infection control performance of national hospital nurses. COVID-19 infection control performance showed significant positive correlation with safety control (r=.531, p<.01) and COVID-19-related infection control awareness (r=.514, p<.01). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between COVID-19 infection control performance and effort-reward imbalance (r=-.203, p<.05).

5. Multiple regression analysis indicated that safety control and COVID-19-related infection control awareness were predictive components of COVID-19 infection control performance (F=26.504, p=.00). The explanatory power was calculated to be 39.5%.

In conclusion, the higher the awareness of COVID-19 infection control, the higher the COVID-19 infection control performance, and the higher the safety control, the higher COVID-19 infection control performance. The research results highlight the need to develop and implement programs to improve the COVID-19 infection control performance of nurses in national hospitals. In other words, an accurate assessment of the level and condition of nurses in relation to each variable is required. Therefore, it is essential to develop an infection control program that can acquaint nurses with the guidelines of infection control and evaluate various delivery methods, such as simulation training, publicity, and periodic education. The results suggest the development of various intervention strategies such as preparing countermeasures for appropriate compensation methods.