Infection prevention climate and its influence on nursing students’ compliance with standard precautions

Abstract

Aim This study examined the influence of the training hospital's infection prevention climate on the nursing students’ compliance with standard precautions during clinical training. Background The concept of infection prevention climate has emerged in healthcare facilities due to the acknowledged influence of organizational culture on the compliance of healthcare workers on infection prevention and control practices. However, the influence of training hospital's infection prevention climate on nursing students’ compliance with standard precautions has never been investigated. Design A descriptive, cross‐sectional design. Methods A convenience sample of 254 nursing students in Saudi Arabia was surveyed using the Leading Culture of Quality in Infection Prevention and the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale from October 2017–January 2018. Results The students perceived their training hospital's infection prevention climate as moderately positive. The students’ age, year of study, and attendance to infection prevention and control training in the last 6 months exerted multivariate effects on the four dimensions and on the overall infection prevention climate. The nursing students’ compliance with standard precautions was moderate. Age, gender, year of study, attendance to infection prevention and control training, and perceived training hospital's infection prevention climate were identified as factors that significantly influenced the students’ compliance with SPs. Conclusions This study underscored the importance of maintaining high quality of infection prevention climate of training hospitals as it influences the development of competencies in infection prevention and control of nursing students.

Assessment of nursing students perceptions of their training hospital's infection prevention climate: A multi-university study in Saudi Arabia

“…These variations could be attributed to different infection prevention climate of healthcare settings. Cruz (2018) suggested that infection prevention climate is commonly understood by health care professionals pertaining to infection prevention in clinical practice. This finding is worth noting because in a descriptive study by Castro-Sánchez and Holmes (2015), the infection prevention climate differences were due to standard precautions protocol, technical procedures, human resources, infection surveillance, and standard precautions compliance assessment.…”

“…Similar to nurses, nursing students are also exposed to healthcare facilities through their clinical training (Cruz, 2018). Colet et al (2015) indicated that nursing students are involved during inpatient care in their clinical training, and they are not exempted in HAI threats (Colet et al, 2015).…”

“…Although some studies highlight the significance of standard precautions training and education in various nursing schools, controversy surrounds the nursing students' perception of infection prevention climate in training hospitals (Cruz, 2018). Notably, although some findings highlighted the significance of sustaining high-quality infection prevention climate (Cruz and Bashtawi, 2016), they have different views in terms of the infection prevention climate influence in training hospitals (Cruz, 2018;D'Alessandro et al, 2014). Although some studies showed that infection prevention was cautiously practiced by health care professionals in Saudi Arabia (Colet et al, 2018), training hospitals' infection prevention climate among nursing students is not well described.…”

“…To diminish infection risk, nursing students should be knowledgeable and competent in infection control practice before proceeding to their training hospitals. Contemporary research has investigated and recognized the critical role played by infection prevention and its proper application in a training hospital (Colet et al, 2015;Cruz, 2018). Substantive research findings have shown that infection prevention effects positive and negative clinical experiences and student learning in clinical settings (Kim and Oh, 2015).…”

“…However, despite nursing students' understanding of HAIs and their clinical exposure toward disease prevention and patient safety (Mitchell et al, 2014), a considerable body of evidence indicates that nursing students are constantly challenged to implement standard precautions because of their views in the infection prevention climate of their training hospitals (Cruz, 2018). Despite the rich content pertaining to predictors of standard precautions compliance, systematic evidence linking nursing students' infection prevention climate perception in their respective training hospitals is lacking.…”