Abstract
BackgroundIn recent year, national bodies have been actively addressing the increasing concern on the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The current study measures the knowledge, intentions and beliefs of third-year Australian nursing students on key infection prevention and control (IPC) concepts.MethodsA cross-sectional study of final-year undergraduate nursing students from Schools of Nursing at six Australian universities was undertaken. Students were asked to participate in an anonymous survey. The survey explored knowledge of standard precautions and transmission based precautions. In addition intentions and beliefs towards IPC were explored.Results349 students from six universities completed the study. 59.8% (95% CI 58.8–60.8%) of questions were answered correctly. Significantly more standard precaution questions were correctly answered than transmission-based precaution questions (p < 0.001). No association was found between self-reported compliance with IPC activities and gender or age. Certain infection control issues were correlated with the percentage of correctly answered transmission-based precaution questions. The participants were most likely to seek infection control information from an infection control professional.ConclusionKnowledge on transmission-based precautions was substandard. As transmission-based precautions are the foundation of IPC for serious organisms and infections, education institutions should reflect on the content and style of educational delivery on this topic.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12912-014-0043-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
In recent year, national bodies have been actively addressing the increasing concern on the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)
Significantly more standard precaution questions were correctly answered than transmission-based precaution questions (p < 0.001)
No association was found between self-reported compliance with infection prevention and control (IPC) activities and gender or age
Summary
National bodies have been actively addressing the increasing concern on the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). There has been an effort by organisations internationally to reduce the spread of healthcareassociated infections (HAIs). The effect of HAIs are felt by individual patients through increased morbidity and mortality, and by a health service through higher costs associated with infections. In the approach to reducing HAIs in Australia, there has been little mention of the role of undergraduate education This is despite evidence pointing towards the pivotal role of the undergraduate environment in shaping attitude and building the knowledge of healthcare professionals [7]
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