Title: Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Internal Quality Control Use Among Medical Laboratory Technologists in the Biochemistry Laboratories of Selected Hospitals in Colombo District
Authors: Morawaka NMı, Zahra RF ı, Manjika MS², Vidanapathirana DM
Volume: 8
Issue: 11
Pages: 43-51
Publication Date: 2024/11/28
Abstract:
Background - Internal quality control (IQC) can be defined as a collection of procedures used by the laboratory staff to monitor operations and the outcomes of measurements to assess the precision of results. Our aim was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices on IQC use among Medical Laboratory Technologists (MLTs) in the Biochemistry Laboratories of selected hospitals in Colombo district. Method - A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among MLTs working in Biochemistry Laboratories of 7 selected hospitals in Colombo district. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices containing 10, 5, 15 questions respectively. Attitude was categorized as strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree in a likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0 software. Chi-square test was used to find an association between knowledge and practice with sociodemographic factors. P values <0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results - From a total of 68 study participants, majority (75%) had good knowledge about IQC while 51.5% had good attitudes towards IQC. Fifty nine percent (58.8%) had bad practice. High cost and limited availability of new quality controls (QC) (42.9%) and time limitation to renew controls (7.1%) are some of the reasons for utilizing expired QC materials. Age, gender, educational level, working experience and training on IQC has no statistically significant association with knowledge and practices of MLTs towards IQC (p>0.05). Conclusion - This study shows that majority of MLTs have good knowledge and attitudes regarding IQC while demonstrating poor IQC practices.