Intervention for medical students: Effective infection control

Needlestick injuries, which lead to the transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and the AIDS virus, are a potentially serious threat to students during their clinical experiences. Exposure to infectious diseases, blood, and hazardous body fluids is one of the most frequently reported injury events by medical students at a health science center in the southwestern region of the United States. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a customized intervention about infection control for second-year medical students (N = 200). Preparation for the intervention included a needs assessment, which included both qualitative and quantitative research methods that incorporated input from fourth year medical students, medical staff members, and local hospital infection control specialists. The intervention included a pretest, a lecture, a demonstration of standard precautions and infection control procedures with 2 clinical scenarios, an exercise on proper handwashing, and a posttest. The evaluation of the intervention demonstrated a significant increase in posttest knowledge scores about infection control (from 12.6 ± 2.1 pretest to 16.5 ± 1.8 posttest, P < .001). Medical students showed a significant knowledge increase about infection control after participating in the intervention. Thus we recommend that all medical colleges and universities develop and evaluate a similar customized intervention for their medical students.