Evaluation of Nursing Students' Performance in Controlling Healthcare-associated Infections in Southwest of Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim:  Given that Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) increase the duration of hospitalization, increase the duration of disability and even death and given the fact that nursing students attend their clinical Nursing practice; the skills gained during this period will determine the performance of this nursing role in controlling future infectious diseases in the future. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the performance of nursing students in controlling HAI in Masjed-Soleyman in 2018. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, stratified sampling was done in nursing students of Islamic Azad University and Masjed-Soleyman health-care Higher Education Complex in 2018. Data were collected using standard questionnaire of students' performance regarding infection control as self-declaration. Data analysis with spss-20 software using T-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient was used. Results: In this study, 145 students with an average age of 23.38 ± 14.47 years were enrolled. Of these, 66.9% were girls and the rest were boys, 89.0% were single and the rest were married. The mean score of these subjects was 44.02 ± 11. 6 which indicates good performance about hospital infections. Girls, students of Azad University and those who participated in workshops or classrooms beforehand, had significantly higher performance than others (p <0.05) but there was not a significant relationship between mean performance and marital scores, place of residence, and academic year (p >0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that the control of infection in these people is good at the level and reveals the effect of the classroom and the training courses held. It is suggested that educational programs be used to engage students in advanced infection control processes and merely get out from workshop and education.