Knowledge, Perception and Confidence in Performance on Infection Prevention and Control Measures among the Nursing Students.

Background Healthcare-associated infections increase the patients' hospital stay, morbidity and mortality. It is important that professionals including students acquire knowledge on infection and acquire skills regarding preventive measures. Objective The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge, perception and confidence on infection prevention and control measures and to find the correlation between variables among nursing students. Method A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 163 nursing students where a purposive sampling method was used to collect data using the selfstructured questionnaire via emails. The questionnaire contained four parts; part I: demographic characteristics, part II: knowledge (40 items), part III: perception (42 items) and part IV: confidence in performance (42 items) on infection prevention and control. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics where analysis of variance using Scheffe's post hoc test and Pearson's correlation test were used. Result Overall knowledge of the participants was fair (71%). They had good knowledge in general principles (85%) but notable poor knowledge in waste management (2%). There was a statistically significant difference in the knowledge among different levels of the students. A static correlation was found between the knowledge and confidence in performance whereas, perception was highly correlated with the confidence in performance of the participants. Conclusion Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the students had fair level of knowledge regarding infection control measures. This study recommends the revision of nursing curriculum and mandating a standardized infection control curriculum across all schools of nursing in the country to improve the knowledge and practice.