Early implementation of appropriate treatments reduces mortality of sepsis, but before starting antibiotherapy, drawing blood culture is essential to identify the source of sepsis and to adapt treatment. Suboptimal practices result in blood culture contamination from patient's skin at the venepuncture site. As blood culture is the standard method to diagnose a bacteraemia, appropriate training of nursing students can promote good clinical practice.
This study aims to evaluate the teaching and the training of French nursing students on blood culture execution and related hygiene practices.
The study design was a cross-sectional audit based on an electronic questionnaire sent to the 10,000 French nursing students over a 4 months period.
One thousand and thirty-six nursing students filled out the survey, representing around 10% of the French nursing students. At nursing school, 30% of the nursing students declared to have received theoretical and practical training on blood culture. During their internship, 45% declared no training on it. Among blood culture execution recommendations, peripheral stick and first aerobic were well known among 88% and 83% of the nursing students, respectively. Similarly, the practice of washing hands and cleaning the venepuncture site prior to blood culture execution were known among 96% and 94% of nursing students. In contrast, the practice of wearing gloves (80%) and facial mask (15%) is relatively lower.
There are discrepancies between the knowledge of nursing students and good practice recommendations for blood culture execution and related hygiene practices. Strengthening the teaching practices will likely improve students' knowledge base, reduce blood culture contamination and improve quality of care.