health beliefs and compliance of standard precautions of covid-19 among employed nurses

Aims: the adherence to standard precautions guidelines as the main strategy for preventing healthcare-associated infections such as covid-19. this study aimed to specify a health belief model to predict the standard precautions of employed nurses. instrument & method: this descriptive cross-sectional was conducted in qom, iran, from march to may 2020. one hundred and ninety-five randomly sampled registered nurses from two hospitals completed self-reported compliance with standard precautions of covid-19 and health belief model scale. data analysis was performed using partial least squares path modeling. findings: less than one-tenth (7%) of participants reported compliance with all standard precautions items. there was a significant relationship between health motivation and standard precautions (β=0.515, t=13.650). cues to action (β=0.356, t=4.512) were identified as the strongest predictor of health motivation and, perceived threat (β=0.143, t=2.144) was the weakest predictor. the model explained approximately 20% of the variance in compliance with standard precautions of covid-19. conclusions: the results indicated that health belief model constructs are considered significant predictors of compliance with standard precautions of covid-19 among iranian employed nurses. the results can help standard precautions training to reduce hospital infections and protect the health of patients and nursing staff.