Abstract
The knowledge, attitudes, and practices of nurses regarding these standard precautions were studied, the levels and correlations of these areas, and specific precautions among the standard precautions were analyzed. The investigation targeted 590 nurses at three institutions that are operated by different entities in Nagasaki prefecture, using questionnaires regarding their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to standard precautions, and further analyzing answers according to the basic attributes. The results found no correlation between score and attitude scores (rs=0.17, p<0.01), or between knowledge and practice scores (rs=0.057, p>0.05). A correlation was observed between the attitude and practice scores (rs=0.412, p<0.01), suggesting that having a good attitude is an important factor for achieving better practice results. The knowledge scores were mean 8.9 (SD1.5), the attitude scores were median 92 (87∼97), and the practice scores were median 84.5 (78∼91). The practice scores were lower than the attitude scores for standard precautions. We believe that simply acquiring knowledge and a good attitude does not always lead to good practice. In the analysis according to the basic attributes, nurses with more experience and who were older tended to have better scores for attitude and practice. Consequently, we believe that it is effective to educate and train nurses according to their level of experience and age. In addition, assistant head nurses or nurses who belonged to infection control committees had higher scores for attitude (p<0.01), and practice (p<0.01), and we believe that job titles and memberships in committees may affect the attitudes (p<0.01), and practices (p<0.01) of nurses regarding the standard precautions. Nurses who had undergone appropriate training also had higher scores for knowledge (p<0.01), attitude (p<0.01), and practice (p<0.01), thus indicating the importance of practical training.
