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Background: Hand wash morale is changing among health workers and, despite many efforts; it is not always possible to achieve lasting improvement. Considering the fact that today’s preschoolers are tomorrow’s health workers, hand washing is one of the habits that should be strictly acquired earlier in life. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether hand washes morale among preschoolers can be improved by introducing a regular educational program. Methods: As a part of the collaboration between the County Hospital and an urban kindergarten, we have developed an interactive educational program that involves both health professionals and kindergarten teachers. The program disseminated information about hand washing and hand hygiene through children’s stories, songs, video films, hand washing puzzles, and board games. Kindergarten teachers held the training sessions twice a week. Before and after the introduction of the program, we examined the children’s hand washing patterns using a UV light kit. Results: Before the introduction of the educational program, only 12.3% of children were able to wash their hands properly. This figure increased to 44.3% after the introduction of the interactive educational program. There were no significant differences between boys and girls, neither in the pre-intervention nor in the post-intervention phase. Conclusions: Hand wash morale for preschool children can be improved through regular interactive educational programs. Through these, children can be induced to compete among themselves to have a cleaner hand. In our opinion, this can be transformed into a multiplier that needs to be further strengthened in the elementary school.
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Background: Hand hygiene is now regarded as one of the most important element of infection control activities. Medical students in their clinical training phase throng the healthcare facilities and can potentially transmit infections besides being the healthcare providers of future when their pattern of training will reflect on their infection control practices. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the knowledge of undergraduate medical students regarding hand hygiene practices.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out and data was collected by using “WHO hand hygiene knowledge questionnaire for health care workers” among 2nd M.B.B.S medical students at Junagadh. Knowledge was graded as good, moderate or poor based on the total number of correct answers.Results: Total 123 students participated in the study. There were 65 (53%) females and 58 (47%) were males. The mean hand hygiene knowledge score (out of 25) was 15.05 (SD: ±2.37, 95% CI: 14.63-15.48). Majority of the participants (76%) had moderate knowledge of hand hygiene practices.Conclusions: In the present study majority of the students had not received formal training regarding hand hygiene practices. Majority of the students had moderate knowledge of hand hygiene. Incorporation of teaching and training of hand hygiene practice in the undergraduate teaching during the initial study years is the need of the hour to prevent further emergence of antimicrobial resistance and health care associated infections.
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Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the effects on skin condition of a hand cleansing protocol comprising repeated use of alcohol rub supplemented with one of two different antimicrobial hand washes, Dermol Wash (DW) and Hibiscrub (HS) when used for 5 consecutive days. Methodology: Forty females applied the alcoholic rub 24 times and used their allocated antimicrobial wash product 13 times on test days (Days 1, 3 and 5) and applied the alcoholic rub 12 times and used the antimicrobial wash 7 times on intervening days. On test centre visit days, an investigator made visual assessments of skin condition and performed corneometry and pH measurements. Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) was measured at baseline and day 5. Subjects also assessed how their skin felt compared to baseline. Results: Investigator visual assessments of skin dryness barely changed for DW but significantly deteriorated by the end of each test day for HS. Subjects' assessments of how their skin felt significantly deteriorated for HS, with five withdrawals. There was one withdrawal in the DW group. Corneometry measurements significantly improved for DW by 19% over the study, compared to a significant deterioration by 18% for HS. Apparent skin surface pH tended to increase for HS only. TEWL increased in both groups. Conclusion: The use of an appropriate hand wash product, such as DW, even in conjunction with ubiquitous alcohol rubs, can achieve significant benefits- assessed in terms of subjects’ own assessments of how their skin feels, investigator visual assessments of skin dryness and skin hydration measured by corneometry.
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O Manual de Referência Técnica para a Higiene das Mãos foi elaborado para auxiliar os profissionais de saúde na implementação de melhorias em suas unidades como parte da estratégia multimodal e de acordo com as Diretrizes da OMS sobre Higiene das Mãos em Serviços de Saúde. (AU)