Programmed instruction revisited: a solution to infection control inservice education

Recent standards established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regarding protection against occupational exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) presents a challenge to staff development and inservice educators to provide the necessary education and training in light of the 24-hour operation of a hospital, the nursing shortage, and the use of part-time personnel. In order to provide initial and periodic infection control programs for nursing personnel, a self-managed module in the form of a programmed unit of instruction (PUI) was developed and tested to determine its effectiveness and efficiency for teaching the basic principles of infection control to inservice nurses. Results of the study indicated that nurses who took a PUI in the basic principles of infection control scored higher on posttests than those who attended a lecture, regardless of their pretest scores, educational level, and experience (p less than .0001).