Blood culture sample management at Kamuzu Central Hospital

Bakali, Benson; Chinguwo, Peter

Blood culture sample management at Kamuzu Central Hospital

Date

2021-08-11

Authors

Bakali, Benson

Chinguwo, Peter

Publisher

Kamuzu University of Health Sciences

Abstract

Sample management is a part of process control, one of the essentials of a quality management system. The laboratory must be proactive in ensuring that the samples it receives meet all the requirements needed to produce accurate test results. Blood culture bottle contains nutrients used by bacteria to grow and this is used to identify organisms in both children and adults. Blood culture is a gold standard methods for identifying organisms in the blood stream. This research broadly aims at assessing health workers’ level of knowledge on blood culture sample management. The Malawian picture on management of blood culture involving nurses, clinicians and laboratory technologists may not vary much with many developing countries, however there is no data available to establish this claim. It is not known how well are the health workers, if at all, equipped with knowledge on management of blood culture. This research has the following objectives; to determine health worker’s knowledge on blood culture sample management, to assess health workers’ attitude towards blood culture sample management and to explore the health worker’s experience with blood culture sample management. Cross sectional research design will be used during the research. The sample size will be 63, and participants will be selected using convenience sampling techniques. We will only allow health workers who participate in blood culture sample management; at clinical or laboratory level. Data is to be collected using a questionnaire and presented in proportions, percentage, graphs, tables and charts. We will seek permission from College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC) and Kamuzu Central Hospital Administrator before conducting the study. This study is expected to help fill the existing gap on data of health workers’ knowledge on blood culture sample management. A full written report of our findings will be presented to COMREC, COM library, KCH and MLS department. Upon approval by the COMREC the findings will be published in Malawi medical journal.