Nurses' assessed self-efficacy levels to medical asepsis and their relation to structural empowerment, work engagement and work-related stress.
Lisa Arvidsson, Bernice Skytt, Maria Lindberg and 1 others
PMID 36314182WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses reported high confidence in medical asepsis, but only small positive links to empowerment, engagement and lower stress.
Confidence was not measured against observed asepsis behaviour, so this does not show that better working conditions improve infection control.
Key findings
01Nurses reported high self-efficacy to medical asepsis, with a mean total score of 137.1 on a 0 to 150 scale.
02Self-efficacy had small positive relationships with structural empowerment (0.255), work engagement (0.268) and work-related stress scores, where higher scores meant better stress management (0.254).
03Higher perceived general transmission risk was related to lower self-efficacy (-0.195), but perceived personal infection risk was not related to self-efficacy (0.008).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that working conditions caused higher self-efficacy or that changing working conditions would change asepsis behaviour. Self-efficacy was measured by nurses’ own ratings, not by observed compliance with asepsis, and the paper notes that self-reported confidence may not match actual performance. The Infection Prevention Appraisal Scale was new and still needed further testing. The risk questions were study-specific and lacked validity and reliability testing. Only 417 of 985 invited nurses responded, and the paper could not guarantee that all nurses received the questionnaire.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The supplied text does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the high self-efficacy scores as evidence that nurses performed asepsis well or that better working conditions would improve infection control. The study measured beliefs, not observed behaviour, was cross-sectional, and found only small relationships.