Knowledge and Compliance Regarding Standard Precautions among Nursing Students at Universiti Sains Malaysia

Background: Standard precautions (SP) are important in protecting both patients and healthcare professionals from occupational exposure as well as ensure patient safety. This study aimed to compare the knowledge and compliance regarding SP among diploma and degree nursing students at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Methods: A cross-sectional study has been conducted among 134 nursing students using self-administered questionnaires. Respondents were recruited using a simple random sampling method. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 24 using descriptive and Spearman’s Rank-Order test. Results: The study showed that diploma and degree nursing students had good knowledge regarding SP (mean of 14.7±2.5 and 15.4 ± 2.4) and a high compliance level of SP (mean of 3.6 ± 0.3 and 3.7 ± 0.2 respectively). Washes hand immediately after contacting any blood, body fluid, secretion, excretion, and dirty substances has the highest degree of compliance among diploma nursing students, while washes hands when comes in different contact with different patients has the highest degree of compliance among bachelor degree nursing. Wear protective eye patch or google when performing operations/procedures that might induce spraying of blood, body fluids, secretions, and excretions was the lowest degree of compliance among both bachelor degree and diploma nursing students. There was no significant correlation between the level of knowledge and compliance with SP (p= 0.23) but there is a significant correlation between the duration of practical training and compliance with SP (p=0.02). Conclusion: Nursing students in USM had good knowledge and high compliance regarding SP. Knowledge did not influence compliance with SP but duration of practical training session did influence compliance with SP.