Knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture: A cross sectional study among medical doctors in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Background: Blood culture is one of the most important investigations done in clinical microbiology laboratories. Not only has it been long recognized as the "gold standard" for diagnosis of Blood Stream Infections (BSIs), very important decisions regarding septicaemic patients' management are based on it. Being a user-dependent diagnostic test, quality of results often depends on the performer. Aim: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in a Nigerian tertiary hospital. Materials and Methods: A pre-tested self-administered semi- structured questionnaire developed by the research team was used to access the biodata, knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in our institution. Results: Forty-eight (54.5%) out of the 88 doctors studied had good knowledge regarding blood culture, 34 (38.6%) moderate knowledge and 6 (6.8%) poor knowledge. Majority of the senior registrars (75.0%), registrars (64.3%) and house officers (65.9%) studied had good knowledge while majority of the consultants (75.0%) had moderate knowledge. Doctors from paediatrics (62.5%) and internal medicine (60.0%) departments had higher proportions with good knowledge compared to those from surgery (57.9%) and obstetrics and gynaecology (45.0%) (p = 0.240). Majority of the doctors with <10 years experience as doctors (57.0%) had good knowledge compared to 33.3% recorded among those >10 years. Attitude and practice was generally positive. Conclusion: Through this study areas of unsatisfactory knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture were identified. This will help in designing an educational intervention programme for the purpose of addressing identified problems areas in blood culture.