Exploring nursing and midwifery knowledge, practices and perceptions regarding inpatients with Clostridium difficile infection: a pre/post-test study

The most common cause of infectious diarrhoea in the health care context is the bacterium Clostridioides difficile also known as Clostridium difficile or C. difficile. In Townsville Hospital Health Service (THHS) and numerous other Australian hospitals many patients are affected by diarrhoea often as a result of a Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Clostridium difficile infection is associated with antibiotic use and lowered immunity and can result in gastrointestinal disease that ranges from asymptomatic colonisation to severe disease that can include colitis, peritonitis and mortality.