Knowledge and Compliance of Standard Precautions among Student Nurses

Abstract

Student nurses are often exposed to various infections during their clinical education. Knowledge and compliance with standard precautions is essential to prevent hospital associated infections and protect patients as well as medical workers from exposure to infectious agents. This study assessed the knowledge and degree of compliance regarding standard precautions among student nurses in a government university in Samar, Philippines. A cross-sectional study was adopted for this investigation and data were collected over a period of one month from April 8 to May 7, 2012. Fifty eight student nurses who were enrolled in the university were asked to complete the self report questionnaires regarding standard precautions. Vast majority (89.7%) of the student nurses have good knowledge (students are satisfactorily well versed with the concepts of standard precautions) (m = 14.45/19) and high compliance (m = 3.59) of standard precautions. The use of mask has the highest degree of compliance (m = 3.95) while the use of eye goggles has the lowest degree of compliance (m = 3.19). Findings suggest no significant association between knowledge and compliance with standard precautions. Teaching approaches must be geared towards intensifying further the compliances especially with the use of other protective equipments such eye goggles and gloves. Furthermore, environment that models and promotes standard precaution practices should be developed by the faculty.

The Effect of a Designed Teaching Module Regarding Prevention of Central-Line Associated Blood Stream Infection on ICU Nurses' Knowledge and Practice

“…The present result was agreement with Labrague, et al, 2012 [31] they found in their study about knowledge and compliance with standards precautions that the young age of the studied sample had capability to gain knowledge and alter their behaviors. While Alwutaib et al, 2012 [32] they stated that older age is an important indicator to lesser knowledge levels.…”

Knowledge and practices of nurses regarding nosocomial infection control measures in private hospitals in Sana’a City, Yemen

“…The knowledge level in these studies was (12.9, 10, and 37.7%), respectively. However, the level of knowledge in the current study is lower than what was found by Vaz et al [23] and Labrague et al [24], as it accounted for 90 and 89.7%, respectively. Such different levels of knowledge among nurses in these different studies might be due to the inadequacy of infection prevention and control training' education, as it was found that those nurses who attended in-service training courses achieved a high knowledge scores [25].…”

The fundamental role of educational intervention on improving health care workers’ knowledge, attitude and practice towards infection control precautions

“…Nurses in this study found to have a significant better self-reported compliance score than that achieved by doctors and assistant nurses which is in agreement with the results of Labrague et al 18 and Kim et al 19 who reported that student nurses have a high compliance of standard precautions. Similar data were found in another study with nursing staff.…”