THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE AND THEIR COMPLIANCE IN APPLYING THE PROCEDURES OF PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT A Study in the Department of Dental Hygiene, Poltekkes Kemenkes Kupang Novianti Poritje Baunsele ˡ, Quroti A’yun ², Desi Rochmawati ³ Department of Dental Nursing, Poltekkes Kemenkes Yogyakarta Jln. Kyai mojo No 56 Email: nbaunsele@gmail.com ABSTRACT Background: Standard Precautions plays an important role in the health service in an effort to control the infection of patients, health professionals and students who are the practice. Standard Precautions should be applied is the personal protective equipment which includes the use of gloves, masks, goggles and protective clothing, which aims to protect yourself against needle puncture, sparks aerosols originating from the handpiece "(manual or ultrasonic) and water sprays. From preliminary studies known to 70% of students do not obey the rules in the use of personal protective equipment and 50% of students have less knowledge about the level of personal protective equipment. Research objective: to observe the correlation between students’ level of knowledge and their compliance in applying the procedures of personal protective equipment. Research Method: This research was an analytical observation used a cross-sectional design. The population of this study was fifth-semester students practicing in oral health care laboratory. The study was conducted in October – November 2019. The research samples were 60 students taken with total sampling techniques. Data collection used questionnaires and checklists and interviews. Data analysis used the Kendall-tau b correlation test. Research result: Respondents with a good level of knowledge about personal protective equipment as much as 60% the value of obedience in doing procedures of the use of personal protective equipment is in category abiding 53.3%. The test results Kendall-tau b correlation showed no relationship between the level of knowledge with compliance in performing procedures on the use of personal protective equipment with a value (p = 0.000> 0.05). Conclusion: Good level of knowledge about personal protective equipment has correlation to student compliance in performing procedures of the use of personal protective equipment at the Department of Dental Hygiene Kupang. Keywords: Knowledge, Compliance, Procedures for Using Personal Protective Equipment