Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: The emergence of HIV/AIDS brought about guidelines for protecting health care workers against HIV/AIDS and other blood borne diseases. These safety precaution guidelines have been targeted mostly at workers while neglecting health care trainees who also come in contact with blood and body fluids during their training. This study therefore assessed the effect of training on the knowledge and attitude of students to standard precautions (SP). Methods: An interventional study to determine the effect of a training workshop on the knowledge and attitude of students to SP was carried out among medical, dental and nursing students in the University of Ibadan. A total of 352 students were trained however 348 participated in the post intervention survey. Questionnaire was used to collect data on their demographic characteristics, awareness and knowledge of SP; and attitude to SP. Knowledge and attitude scores were generated to determine those with good and poor knowledge and attitude respectively. Data analysis was done at p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the students was 23.8years � 4.1 and more than half of them (56.0 %) were females. Majority (64.6%) of the students was medical students, while dental and nursing students comprised 14.4% and 21% of the respondents respectively. Students in their second to sixth year participated with over a third (38.8%) of them being in their fourth year. Majority (88.9%) were aware of SP guidelines however only 30.4% had previous training on SP. The pre-test assessment showed that 45.5% and 56.8% of the students had good knowledge of and positive attitude to standard precautions respectively. Following the training on SP, there was a significant increase in the proportion of students with good knowledge of (66.4%) and positive attitude (70.7%) to SP (p<0.05). The improvement in knowledge of SP was significantly more among medical (73.7%) and dental students (62.0%) and students in their fourth year (58.6%) and above (p<0.05). However, the post-test improvement in attitude was significant only among medical students (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that training improved the knowledge of and attitude to SP among students whose training exposes them to blood and body fluids. Therefore, there is a need to reinforce their knowledge of SP periodically by inculcating it into their training curriculum.

Biography

Dr. A. Oladunjoye is a Resident Doctor, Department of Community Medicine, University College Hospital, Nigeria.