HAND HYGIENE;

Perceptions of medical students.

Abstract

Background: WHO Guidelines recommends ‘‘My five moments for hand hygiene” for prevention of HCAI. Objective: To
assess the knowledge and practices of medical students about HCAI and hand hygiene. Setting: Lahore Medical & Dental College
(LMDC), Lahore. Period: Four weeks, in January and February, 2012. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using
WHO’s “Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire”, among MBBS students from 3rd to final years, 2012. Data was entered and cleaned in
SPSS 19 and presented in tables and graphs. Descriptive statistics was used in the forms of numbers and percentages. Results: Among
227 respondents, 63% were female, 67% were 20 to 22 years old, 38% were from 3rd year, 40% from 4th year and 22% from final year,
61% never received hand hygiene training and 67% never used hand rubs. Few students named unclean hands as main route (42%) and
source of HCAI (21%). Hand hygiene was preferred before touching patients (76%) and after body fluid exposure (70%). It was perceived
to be rapid (63%), effective (66%), cause of skin dryness (57%) and it was supposed to be used concomitantly with hand washing (74%),
before abdomen palpation (48%), giving injection (31%), after removing gloves (22%) and making patient’s bed (31%). Damaged skin
(92%), artificial fingernails (78%) and jewelry (53%) were perceived to increase hand contamination. Conclusions: There were serious
gaps in knowledge of proper hand cleaning techniques and their importance in prevention of health HCAI. Hand hygiene, must be part of
curriculum and training of all health care providers.