Nursing students' knowledge and practice of infection control precautions: an educational intervention.

AIM: This paper is a report of the effectiveness of a purpose-designed education program in improving undergraduate nursing students' understanding and practice of infection control precautions.
BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003 highlighted that healthcare workers were under-prepared for such an epidemic. While many in-service education sessions were arranged by institutions in response to the outbreak, preservice nursing education has overlooked preparation for handling such infectious disease epidemics.
METHOD: A quasi-experimental design was used and a 16-hour, purpose-designed infection control education programme was implemented for preservice nursing students in southern Taiwan. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed at three time points during the period September 2005 to April 2006 to examine the sustainability and effectiveness of the intervention.
RESULTS: A total of 175 preservice nursing students participated in the study. Following the education programme, students in the intervention group showed a statistically significant improvement across time in their knowledge of these precautions [F(2, 180) = 13.53, P < 0.001] and confidence in resolving infection-related issues [F(1.79, 168.95) = 3.24] when compared with those in the control group.
CONCLUSION: To improve nursing students' capacity in responding to infectious epidemics, an educational programme that integrates the theme of infection precautions, learning theory and teaching strategies is recommended for all nursing institutes.