What do patients know about healthcare-associated infections? What do they want to know? Ethical evaluation.

Introduction: Patients hospitalized for treatment may be exposed to healthcare-associated infections, and these infections can affect patients seriously.

Objective: This research was conducted to determine what hospitalized patients know and what they want to know about healthcare-associated infections.

Methods: This is a full-text original research article. The study was conducted between July and September 2022 with inpatients in all clinics of Kocaeli University Hospital in Turkey. A total of 310 patients participated in this cross-sectional study. The questions were asked by the researcher and the answers were recorded.

Results: Almost all (92.8%) the patients who stated that they knew what healthcare-associated infection was evaluated their knowledge as insufficient. Patients with higher educational levels have more information (p=0.000) about healthcare-associated infections. Young (p=0.000) and highly educated patients (p=0.000) stated that the infection rate of the hospital would affect the choice of hospital.

Conclusion: Patients want to learn about healthcare-associated infections, but most do not know about them. Patients should be informed about healthcare-associated infections during hospitalization planning and hospitalization.