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This study explored nursing students' compliance with standard precautions (SPs) and attitudes to SPs in Thailand, to identify factors that may increase adherence to SPs and infection prevention and control best practice. In the context of high rates of healthcare associated infections as in Thailand, effective strategies to promote high levels of clinician adherence to SPs is a priority. Nursing students are one group of healthcare workers who play a vital role in caring for patients and constitute the future nursing workforce. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A self-reported survey comprising the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale and the Factors Influencing Adherence to Standard Precautions Scale were distributed to nursing students as a Thai paper-based survey. A total of '533 second' to fourth year nursing students from a tertiary nursing school in Bangkok, Thailand completed the survey. The average nursing student compliance to SPs was 68.5%. Most (91.2%) reported only using water for handwashing and 57.2% reported reuse of surgical masks. The fourth-year students had higher compliance (M=3.90, SD=1.12) on the 'prevention of cross infection from person-to-person' dimension while second-year students reported higher compliance on the 'disposal of sharps' (M=2.67, SD=0.57) dimension. 'Contextual Cues' was identified as the factor (M=3.41, SD=0.40) that had the greatest influence on adherence and 'Practice Culture' (M=1.84, SD=0.66) and 'Justification' (M = 1.35, SD.68 had the lowest influence. Fourth year students identified 'Leadership' (M=2.90, SD=0.49) as an important influence on adherence to SPs. To increase nursing students' adherence there needs to be greater emphasis on the importance of SPs in theoretical sessions and regular monitoring and feedback on hand hygiene performance and personal protective equipment use while students are on placements. More visible organizational leadership and promotion of high levels of adherence to SPs may assist students to translate their theoretical knowledge into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate education of Health Care Workers is pivotal to ensuring that frontline clinicians have appropriate knowledge and skills in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). The aim of this study was to describe undergraduate nursing students' self-reported compliance with Standard Precautions and to explore the psychosocial factors that influence adherence in clinical practice. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study was conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at an Australian University. All undergraduate nursing students were invited to participate in an online survey; 321 participated, mean age 25.7 years (SD = 8.4). The majority, 196 (61%), had no healthcare work experience, 54 (17%) were patient-care assistants, 40 (13%) enrolled nurses, and 31 (9%) were nurses registered overseas. Two validated instruments were used: the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale (CSPS) and the Factors Influencing Adherence to Standard Precautions Scale– Student version (FIASPS-SV). Linear regression was used to measure the impact of psychosocial factors on self-reported compliance. Overall self-reported compliance with prevention of cross-infection was 83%, use of Personal Protective Equipment (81%), correct disposal of sharps (83%) and general waste (75%), and equipment decontamination (69%). The predominant factors endorsed on the FIASPS-SV were 'Leadership' (M = 15.21 SD = 5.28) and 'Contextual cues' (M = 19.09 SD = 6.37). Multivariate linear regression demonstrated that after adjusting for age, gender and years of nursing study, the Leadership factor predicted participants' self-reported compliance on the 'prevention of cross-infection' (p <.001), 'use of PPE' (p <.001), 'waste disposal' (p =.021), and 'decontamination of equipment' (p <.001) sub-domains of the CSPS. These findings highlight that strong clinical leadership and role modelling are essential to ensure all healthcare students prioritise rigorous adherence with infection prevention and control guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]