Hand hygiene practices among nursing students: importance of improving current training programs.

ABSTRACT

Background: Although numerous studies have demonstrated that hand hygiene reduces health care–associated infection rates, adherence to hand hygiene guidelines remains uniformly low among health care workers. The present study was undertaken to assess the hand hygiene practices among the nursing students of Bareilly and to suggest the suitable corrective and preventive measures to be taken in future. Methods: These six months cross sectional study was carried out among the nursing students of Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. A total of 50 students participated in the study. A structured, self-administered pretested questionnaire was used to collect detailed information about the subjects‟ self-reported hand washing practices. Knowledge was assessed using 25 questions which included multiple choice and “yes” or “no” questions. A scoring system was used where 1 point was given for each correct response to knowledge, positive attitudes and practices and 0 was given for incorrect knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor practices. Data entry and statistical analysis were performed using the Microsoft Excel and SPSS windows version 14.0 software. Results: Majority of the healthcare workers were females (72.0%), were aged between 31-40 years (60.0%) and had received formal training in hand hygiene in the last 3 years (90.0%). A higher proportion of them routinely used alcohol based hand rub (52.0%). Nearly 28% had poor knowledge and 72% had moderate knowledge regarding hand hygiene. Conclusions: The knowledge about good hand washing practices and compliance of the same according to WHO guidelines amongst health care workers is essential for lowering the health care associated infections. Our study shows the importance of improving the current training programs targeting hand hygiene practices among nursing students.