Nurses’ Knowledge of Blood Culture Sampling Procedure

Abstract

Background: False-positive blood culture results due to contaminated samples have shown to increase
patients’ health costs, including the use of broad spectrum antibiotics and prolonged hospital length of
stay. While previous research have suggested that increasing staff knowledge on proper specimen collection
lowers contamination rates significantly, staff’s current knowledge of hospital-recommended sample
collection procedure have yet to be assessed in Dr. Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study on 81 Emergency Department nurses in Dr. Hasan
Sadikin General Hospital, Indonesia. Subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to measure
their knowledge of blood culture sampling procedure in accordance with the hospital’s standard operating
procedure.

Results: Among 81 subjects enrolled, 51 managed to adequately describe the prerequisites in proper blood
culture sampling procedure and their purpose as dictated by Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital’s standard
operating procedure.

Conclusions: Up to 67% of nurses conducting blood sampling procedure in Dr. Hasan Sadikin General
Hospital’s Emergency Department understood the prerequisites of hospital-recommended blood culture
sampling procedure and their purpose.