Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding PPE Among Nursing Students

Abstract

This study assessed the knowledge and attitude of final-year nursing students toward personal protective equipment (PPE) in selected private nursing colleges in Ahmedabad, aiming to develop an informational booklet. The study was based on the Revised Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 2003), which examines factors influencing health behavior and the likelihood of preventive action. A survey using a post-test only design was conducted with 250 nursing students selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected through a structured knowledge questionnaire and a Likert scale for attitude. Content validity was confirmed by seven experts, and reliability scores were 0.851 for knowledge and 0.902 for attitude tools using the split-half method. Results indicated that 95.6% of students had a positive attitude toward PPE. The mean scores for knowledge and attitude were 13.82 and 42.59, respectively. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.845, p < 0.05) was found between knowledge and attitude. Significant associations existed between knowledge and age, professional education, and sources of information on PPE, while gender showed no association. Attitude was significantly associated only with professional education. These findings underscore the need to improve nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes to ensure effective PPE use and enhance safety practices.