Objective To understand the current situation of medical students' education on hospital infection prevention and control, and analyze its influencing factors.

Methods A general questionnaire survey was adopted to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1820 medical students from 38 medical institutions in Anhui Province.

Results Among the infection control competencies, the hand hygiene and disinfection isolation were the two weakest aspects for medical students. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the master's degree or above, participation in pre-job training for infection control, and understanding of infection control were significantly correlated with competence (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01). Medical students who had participated in pre-job training for infection control and high competence felt it more necessary to offer infection control courses (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01). The 48.8% of the students hoped that the infection control course would be arranged before the internship, and 62.29% of the students suggest that the course duration should be 8 to 16 hours. Hand hygiene, overview of hospital infections and knowledge of disinfection and isolation were the knowledge contents that medical students had a relatively high demand for.

Conclusions It is necessary to establish a new model of infection control competence education that is hierarchical, practice-oriented and integrates institutional education with clinical training to ensure medical quality and patient safety.