A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Infection Control Practices Among Nursing Students in Selected Colleges of Nursing

Abstract

Introduction: Practices for infection prevention and control (IPC) are crucial to providing safe healthcare. During clinical training, nursing students must demonstrate proper infection control procedures and have sufficient understanding as future healthcare providers. Patients and healthcare personnel may be more susceptible to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) due to inadequate information and poor adherence to infection prevention standards. In order to guarantee high-quality nursing care and patient safety, it is essential to evaluate nursing students' knowledge and infection control procedures.

Methodology: A convenient sample of 200 nursing students from particular nursing colleges participated in a descriptive cross-sectional study. A self-reported infection control practice checklist and a structured knowledge questionnaire were used to gather data. Data analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: According to the findings, 62% of nursing students had high knowledge, 28% had average knowledge, and 10% had inadequate comprehension of infection prevention. Good infection control practices were reported by 58% of respondents, satisfactory practices by 32%, and insufficient practices by 10%. There was a substantial positive correlation between knowledge and infection control practices (r=0.68, p<0.05). A few demographic characteristics, such as study year and previous infection control training, were shown to be strongly connected with knowledge evaluations.

Conclusion: The study found that while most nursing students had sufficient knowledge and effective infection control procedures, ongoing education and hands-on training are still necessary to improve adherence to infection prevention recommendations.