Nursing students' knowledge, attitude and practices of infection prevention and control guidelines at a tertiary institution in the Western Cape : a cross sectional study

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2017.ENGLISH SUMMARY: Background: Nurses in sub-Saharan Africa are particularly at a higher risk of acquiring nosocomial infections, considering the increased prevalence of infectious diseases. It is therefore imperative that these nurses have a sound knowledge and understanding of infection prevention procedures. Objective: The main objective of this study was to describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning infection prevention and control precautions among nursing students in a resource limited setting. Method: A cross sectional study design was employed. A self-administered questionnaire concerning infection prevention and control guidelines were made available to students enrolled in a mainstream programme for completion of an undergraduate nursing degree. Setting and participants: A total of 301 students at second, third and final years of study from a tertiary institution in the Western Cape were invited to participate. Results: The final cohort comprised of 301 students with the majority between the ages of 17-26 (88.2%), with a mean age of 23±4.7 (SD) years and the dominant gender being female (83.4%). According to the classification system used in this study, majority of the students were overall evaluated as having good level of knowledge (47.4%) and poor attitude (41.7%) scores, with little difference in practice scores observed between different years of study. There was a positive correlation found between students’ total attitude and total practice scores (r = 0.48 p<0.01). Results showed that a significant association between gender with knowledge (p<0.05), attitudes (p<0.05) and practice (p<0.05) exists. There was also a significant association between province and those who repeated a year with total knowledge scores (p