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

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 improve 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 environment (β = 0.24, p = .002), monitoring of wearing Personal Protective Equipment (β = 0.19, p = .006), knowledge about COVID-19 (β = 0.18, p = .009), perceived severity related to COVID-19 (β = 0.18, p = .010), and perceived barrier related to COVID-19 (β = −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.