Improving the knowledge of and compliance with infection control for emerging respiratory infectious diseases among nursing students using importance-performance analysis: A descriptive survey study

Due to a lack of prior training on emerging respiratory infectious diseases (ERIDs), systematic nursing guidelines, supplies, and manpower, nurses experienced extreme physical and psychological stress while providing care to patients with infectious diseases during the pandemic.This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of and compliance with infection control for ERIDs among nursing students, as well as identify the priorities in infection control knowledge and compliance using importance-performance analysis (IPA), to prepare supporting data for developing infection control training programs for ERIDs.This descriptive survey used IPA to examine nursing students' knowledge of infection control priorities and ERID compliance.The participants were recruited from a convenience sample of first- to fourth-year nursing majors from one region of South Korea.Data were collected from 481 nursing students through a questionnaire survey conducted between May 3 and June 30, 2022.Data were examined using descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, a one-way analysis of variance, and IPA.The IPA results showed that among 12 items related to nursing students' knowledge of infection control for ERIDs, item #1 (definition of ERID) belonged to quadrant C (low priority), whereas all other items (items #2-12) belonged to quadrant A (concentrate here). Among 12 items related to compliance with infection control for ERIDs, items #2 (hand hygiene) and #3 (mask wearing) belonged to quadrant B (keep up the good work), whereas the remaining 10 items belonged to quadrant A (concentrate here).In order to improve nursing students' knowledge of and compliance with infection control for ERIDs, infection control training with more specific material should replace the present curriculum in South Korea.