P09.03 Nursing students intentions and patterns of adherence to uncommonly used standard precaution (SP) guidelines, a cohort study

Background:Nursing students and young graduate’s compliancewith the guidelines is less then the optimum, and affected by avariety of social, cognitive and emotional factors.Aims:To examine the influence of factors as knowledge ofblood born pathogens (BBPs), professional risk perception, SafetyClimate (SC), leadership and Sense of Coherence (SOC) on thedevelopment of behavioural intentions and patterns of compliancewith uncommonly used Standard Precaution (SP) guidelines, suchas the use of goggles and gowns in SP indications.Method:Two consecutive classes of a four-year BN nursing programwere asked to fill self-administered questionnaires three timedduring their formal training, Time 1 – second year with minimalclinical exposure; Time 2 – third year – major clinical courses;Time 3 – end of forth year – end of program.Results:Eighty five of 91 students (92%) responded in the secondyear; 65% at the end of the third year; 85% at the end of the program. Factor analysis of the intentions to adhere and patterns of adherencewith SP guidelines demonstrated two types of behaviours: onerelated to commonly used SP and others included less commonlyused SP.The less commonly used SP ascended during the passage fromthe second to the third year of nursing school. The threemeasurements produced a statistically significant linear slope(MS=17.149, F(1,40)=14.68, p<0.001).At the end of the educational program, a multiple linearregression (F(4,55)=5.55, R2=0.29, p=0.001) revealed thatstudents’ perception of risk is the most significant predictor(beta=3.61, p=0.001), followed by emphasize of formal nursingeducators (beta=3.13, p=0.003).Conclusions:It seems that the intentions to adhere to and patternsof adherence to the less commonly used SP, at the end of the formalsocialization period are influenced by situational factors, mainly byelevated risk perception.