title: Nursing students' intentions to comply with standard precautions: an exploratory prospective cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Partial compliance of health care workers with standard precaution (SP) guidelines has been extensively documented. The aim of this study was to describe the development of nursing students' intentions to comply with SPs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort study. Two consecutive classes of a 4-year bachelor of nursing program completed questionnaires 3 times. The transtheoretical model of change was used to describe the change in intentions to comply with SPs. Factor analysis displayed 2 behavioral categories: commonly used standard precautions (CUSPs) and less commonly used standard precautions (LUSPs). Knowledge, risk perception, sense of coherence (SOC), safety climate (SC), and emphasis given by educators were evaluated as associated factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 91 students, 85 (93%) completed the questionnaire during their second year, 57 of 88 students (65%) completed it during the third year, and 70 of 82 students (85%) completed it at the end of the fourth year. Of the 82 students, 45 (55%) completed 3 measurements. CUSPs exhibited a rise from the second to the third year, with a moderate decline from the third to the fourth year, whereas LUSPs continued ascending. CUSPs were positively associated with SC and SOC; LUSPs were commonly associated with risk perception.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The different evolution of CUSPs and LUSPs and dissimilar associations may suggest that different strategies might encourage diverse SP behaviors. Improving the SC might be appropriate when aiming to encourage CUSPs, and highlighting risks may be appropriate to encourage LUSPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Recanati School for Community Health Professions, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Electronic address: Livshiz@exchange.bgu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Livshiz-Riven
authors.affiliation: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Ronit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nativ
authors.affiliation: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.
authors.forename: Yaniv
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanat-Maymon
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofra
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Anson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013338:Students, Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016635:Universal Precautions; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cohort study; Infection control and prevention; Nursing education; Occupational risk perception; Safety climate; Sense of coherence; Standard precautions; Transtheoretical model of change (TTMC)