Factors Influencing the Performance of Standard Precautions for Preventing Infections among Nurses in Long-Term Care Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the influence of awareness of standard precautions, protective environment on exposure to infection, infection control organizational culture, and moral sensitivity on long-term care hospital nurses’ performance of standard precautions.Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. This study included 240 nurses actively employed at long-term care hospitals in Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires from February 18, 2021 to January 20, 2022. Measurement tools were used to assess awareness of standard precautions, protective environment on exposure to infection, infection control organizational culture, moral sensitivity, and performance of standard precautions. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Scheffé's test, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression.Results: The factors influencing performance of standard precautions were awareness of standard precautions (β=.45, p<.001), protective environment on exposure to infection (β=.19, p=.007), organizational culture of infection control (β=.17, p=.017), and possession of a college degree (β=-.12, p=.016). The explanatory power was approximately 43%.Conclusion: The results of this study can inform efforts to improve the management of healthcare-associated infections and serve as basic data to enhance the implementation of guidelines on standard precautions by long-term care hospital nurses.