Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Infection Prevention Measures among Nursing Students at Mufulira College of Nursing and Midwifery, Mufulira, Copperbelt Province, Zambia

Introduction: Infection prevention (IP) is a very essential component in the health service provision within the health care system and is a set of standard precautions employed to prevent transmission of diseases that can be acquired by contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin (including rashes), and mucous membranes. According to the World Health Organization, 7.1 million cases of HAI occur every year. One out of every 20 people suffers from hospital infection. This leads to 99,000 cases of death every year and imposes an estimated cost of $ 32 million to society. Considering the important role of nursing students in managing and controlling nosocomial infections, their knowledge and performance in infection control have been studied in different countries. The main objective of this study is to determine knowledge, attitude and practices of infection prevention among nursing students at Mufulira College of Nursing and Midwifery. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study design where 100 respondents’ 2nd and 3rd year nursing students participated in the study. Participants were randomly selected. A self-administered structured interview schedule was used to collect data. SPSS computer software package version 23.0 was used to analyze data. Fisher’s exact tests were used to test the significance of the association between Knowledge on IP and Attitude towards Infection Practices among nursing students. A 95% confidence interval and the P value of 0.05, were used to ascertain the degree of significance. Results: Majority of the respondents (96%) had good practice. More than half (58%) of respondents revealed high knowledge levels. Almost all the respondents (98%) had a positive attitude towards IP. Chi-square test on knowledge (P-value 0.04) and P ≤ 0.05, indicates that there is an association between IP practices and knowledge levels of nursing students and attitude (P-value 0.002), P ≤ 0.05 indicates that there is an association between IP practices and attitude of nursing students. On multivariable logistic analysis, students with low knowledge levels had 2.13 times higher odds of poor infection prevention practices compared to those with high knowledge levels and this effect was significant (AOR: 2.134, CI: 1.341 - 4.842, P = 0.04). Similarly, students with a negative attitude had 3.10 times higher odds of poor infection prevention practices compared to those with a positive attitude and this effect was highly significant (AOR: 3.104, CI: 1.146 - 8.346, P = 0.02). Conclusion: The study has established the presence of good IP practices among nursing students. This does not support the initial assertion that nursing students have poor IP practices as they frequently comply with teaching advice. The findings have also demonstrated high knowledge levels on IP practices among nursing students being the key component in prevent-ing infection transmission.