Nursing staff's compliance and adherence to standard precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

This study investigated the compliance and adherence of nurses, midwives, and nursing assistants to standard precautions (SPs). A cross-sectional design while adhering to STROBE guidelines was used for this study. Nursing staff (nurses, nursing assistants, and midwives) from a government tertiary hospital (n=515) were recruited and completed the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale (CSPS) and Factors Influencing Adherence to Standard Precautions Scale (FIASPS). Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The overall average compliance with the SPs of the nursing staff was suboptimal, and the disposal of sharps domain had the lowest compliance. Nurses are more compliant with sharps disposal than nursing assistants with waste disposal. Contextual cues were the most influential aspect of participants' adherence to SPs. All CSPS domains were significantly correlated with the contextual cues factor of FIASPS. Finally, service years and educational attainment were significant predictors of SPs adherence. The findings underscore the organization's critical responsibility to actively enforce policies using monitoring systems and contextual cues in the workplace to ensure staff compliance and adherence with SPs.