ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Hand Hygiene is an essential method to preclude infections in all healthcare environments. Education is essential to advance hand hygiene performance amongst nurses and nursing students. The aim is to find out the usefulness of a self-paced online hand hygiene course on the knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing students by evaluating student performance in post-tests. Methods: The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which data were collected using two questionnaires from undergraduate nursing students and they were exposed to interactive lectures and online activities related to risks, benefits, and key recommendations for hand hygiene. The following two surveys were used, Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Health-Care Workers; and Handwashing Assessment Inventory. Data were collected through pre-post tests. Results: Nurses reported a significant change for the better in hand hygiene comprehension, attitude, and performance of hand hygiene behaviours. The present study revealed a significant increase in hand hygiene knowledge belief, attitude, and outcomes among university students after participating in the training intervention. The majority of participants in the pretest rated their knowledge level as poor. Conclusion: Interactive training and online learning courses on hand hygiene could be used to influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of students to bring about the desired change in hand hygiene practice.
ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the genotoxic potential and histopathological changes induced in liver, kidney, testis, brain and heart after using the antibiotic drug amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (4:1). Methods The study included chromosomal aberration analysis in bone-marrow and mouse spermatocytes, induction of sperm morphological abnormalities and histopathological changes in different body organs. The drug was administrated orally at a dose of 81 mg/kg body weight twice daily (Total = 162 mg/kg/day) for various periods of time equivalent to 625 mg/men (twice daily). Results The results revealed non-significant chromosomal aberrations induced after treatment with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (AC) in both bone marrow and mouse spermatocytes after 7 and 10 days treatment. On the other hand, statistically significant percentages of sperm morphological abnormalities were recorded. Such percentage reached 8.10 ± 0.55, 9.86 ± 0.63 and 12.12 ± 0.58 at the three time intervals tested (7, 14 and 35 days after the 1st treatment respectively) (treatment performed for 5 successive days) compared with 2.78 ± 0.48 for the control. The results also revealed histopathological changes in different body organs after AC treatment which increased with the prolongation of the period of therapy. Congestion of central vain, liver hemorrhage and hydropic changes in hepatocytes were noticed in the liver. Degenerative changes were found in kidney glomerulus and tubules while testis showed atrophy of seminiferous tubules, and reduction of spermatogenesis. AC also induced neurotoxicity and altered brain neurotransmitter levels. Hemorrhage in the myocardium, disruption of cardiac muscle fibers and pyknotic nuclei in cardiomyocytes were recorded as side effects of AC in heart tissue. Conclusions The results concluded that AC treatment induced sperm morphological abnormalities and histopathological changes in different body organs. Clinicians must be aware of such results while describing the drug.