Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Vaccination Status of Hepatitis B among Nursing Training Students in Ho, Ghana

BACKGROUND: Viral hepatitis B is a disease condition of the liver caused by the hepatitis B virus, and it leads to complications such as cancer and cirrhosis. This poses an occupational hazard because about 66,000 health care workers get infected with the virus annually. Adequate knowledge and right attitude of health workers are required to prevent the disease. Compared to average health care workers, trainee nurses are more vulnerable to the disease due to inadequate knowledge on infection control guidelines. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The study assessed the knowledge, attitude and vaccination status of hepatitis B among nursing training students in Ho, Ghana. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out between September and December 2017 in which 358 student nurses were randomly selected to participate in this study. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool to get information from the students. Data were then entered into SPSS version 20 for cleaning and analysis. RESULT: The majority of participants were between the ages of 20–26 years with the mean age 21.56 (SD ± 2.65). About 78.2% knew the disease is caused by a virus. Also, 69.8% reported transmission through needle stick injuries, and the mean knowledge score was 29.6 (SD ± 6.98). Also, 68.8% recapped needles (P = 0.012), and 49.4% have taken the full three doses of vaccines. CONCLUSION: The study points to a satisfactory knowledge and vaccination status of hepatitis B among the trainee nurses but poor attitude toward the disease, hence the need for massive health education among the nurses.