A crucial aspect of delivering healthcare is infection prevention and control (IPC), especially in public hospitals where the high volume of patients and limited resources can heighten the risk of healthcare-associated infections. This qualitative study explores IPC nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in public hospitals within the Limpopo province of South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive design. This qualitative study utilized self-developed validated semi-structured interviews with IPC nurses from 12 public hospitals (4 tertiary, 4 regional, and 4 district). The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis to identify key themes related to knowledge, attitudes, and practices in IPC. Each interview lasted approximately 15 to 20 min. Themes and subthemes that emerged provided a structured overview of the key aspects discussed. Each theme captures a different facet of the experiences, perceptions, and challenges faced by IPC nurses in their role. The subthemes further break down these views into specific areas of focus, offering deeper insights into the nurses’ experiences of their professional responsibilities. This study shows that, although IPC nurses have a good understanding of infection control and a positive attitude toward it, systemic problems and resource constraints make it difficult to consistently implement optimal practices. Affective mood, opportunity cost, coherence of the intervention, burden, perceived efficacy, self-efficacy, and ethics are among the major themes that were found. To improve IPC efforts, there is a clear need for more focused training, resources, and managerial support.

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is imperative to ensuring patient safety; however, public hospitals in Limpopo Province suffer from poor infrastructure, lack of education, and lack of surveillance. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of IPC programs within Limpopo Province and develop an evidence-based improvement strategy using the WHO Multimodal Framework. A mixed-methods research approach was used over three different phases. In Phase I, retrospective data on IPCAF were collected on all 41 public hospitals. In Phase II, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six IPC nurses. Descriptive statistics (medians and interquartile ranges) were used for quantitative analysis, while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis in ATLAS.ti. An evidence-informed strategy was formulated in Phase III. Overall IPC program performance was moderate (median IPCAF score: 618.0/800), with 58.5% of hospitals having advanced status, 39.0% intermediate status, and 2.4% basic status. The most poorly performing component was workload/staffing (CC7: 60.0). Districts scored between 576.2 (Capricorn) and 636.0 (Mopani). Lack of standardized education, understaffing, and role ambiguity were the main barriers identified. The strategy uses the “Build It, Teach It, Check It, Sell It, Live It” framework.