Factors influencing emergency nurses' infection control practices related to coronavirus disease 2019 in Korea

Abstract

Background: When an infectious disease breaks out, emergency nurses are the front-line specialists. Infection control by emergency nurses is important to minimize the risk of infectious disease and to im-prove the infection control practices of emergency nurses. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the factors influencing infection control practice related to COVID-19.Methods: For this cross-sectional study design used survey methods for data collection, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 161 emergency nurses working in five hospitals selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected from November 10 to November 26 in 2020.Results: Infection control practice related to COVID-19 was affected by the infection prevention environ-ment (beta = 0.24, p = .002), monitoring of wearing Personal Protective Equipment (beta = 0.19, p = .006), knowledge about COVID-19 (beta = 0.18, p = .009), perceived severity related to COVID-19 (beta = 0.18, p = .010), and perceived barrier related to COVID-19 (beta = -0.15, p = .033).Conclusion: Creating safe infection prevention measures and revitalizing personal protective equipment monitoring are necessary to improve infection control practices. A systematic infection control education program is needed to improve knowledge about COVID-19, emphasize its perceived severity, and identify and eliminate perceived barriers.(c) 2022 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.