Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common types of Healthcare-Associated infection accounting for 14% to 16% of all nosocomial infections among hospitalized surgical patients. SSI is a significant clinical problem associated to post-operative morbidity ,resulting serious consequences in patients’ health , prolonged hospital stay and increasing costs. Aimed at assessing level of knowledge of nurses and associated factors regarding prevention of SSI in surgical units of Vlora and Fier Hospital and to determine relationship between both variables.  Method and Material: A cross-sectional descriptive study included 66 randomly selected nurses who completed an anonymus questionnaire regarding surgical site infections during the period of study .The statistical analysis included the calculation of averages, frequencies and percentages while the Chi-Square test was used for the relationship between the variables . To see the relative effect of independent variables on the dependent variable, regression analysis was carried out. The findings revealed that the majority of nurses (65%) had average knowledge and good practices (46%) regarding the prevention of surgical site infection. There was a significant relationship between the gender of the nurses and level of knowledge (p=0.001).Regarding nursing practice, there were significant relationships between age of nurses and level of practices (p=0.017). One area of their knowledge were at very low level including understanding prevention of infection for lengthy operation . Some areas of practices were less practicing including: advising patients to shower before surgery with antimicrobial agents. There were no statistically significant differences between knowledges and practice of the respondents in both hospitals while there have been observed some important relationships between specific questions of knowledge with nurses practices. The results suggest that increasing knowledge and focusing on some certain areas of prevention of SSI in practice need to be improved ,with a direct impact on patient’s life and enhancing health care quality.

Keywords : Knowledge, Nurses, Practice, Prevention, Surgical Site Infection