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Background: Undergraduate education of Health Care Workers is pivotal to ensuring that frontline clinicians have appropriate knowledge and skills in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)., Objectives: 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., Design: A cross-sectional survey design was used., Setting: The study was conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at an Australian University., Participants: 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., Methods: 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., Results: 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., Conclusions: 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., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Standard Precautions have been demonstrated to limit infection transmission in the healthcare setting. Despite their mandated use, adherence by healthcare professionals remains suboptimal. A nursing curriculum embedding infection prevention and control is essential in equipping future healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge to improve patient safety. There are no psychometrically-validated tools that specifically assess influences on nursing students' adherence to standard precautions., Methods: The aim in this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the five-factor Factors Influencing Adherence to Standard Precautions within a sample of undergraduate nursing students studying at one Australian University., Results: Data from 321 participants were used to test the 5 factors structure, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The goodness of fit indices did not support adequate fit of the data and the data were submitted to a random split-half sample factor analysis process. A four-factor solution was extracted with good to acceptable internal reliabilities (α = .66 -.80)., Conclusion: There are distinctive differences in the factors that influence student versus registered nurses' behaviour and clinical decision-making in relation to use of SP. The Factors Influencing Adherence to Standard Precautions (Student Version) has good psychometric properties and is suitable for use with nursing students. Having measures specific to students is essential as measures developed for healthcare professionals might not be applicable to a nursing student population., (Copyright © 2020 Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)