Abstract :
Introduction: Proper hand hygiene practices are important to prevent nosocomial infections, cross transmission of microorganisms and to reduce the occupational risk of infectious diseases in a health care setting. Though WHO has given guidelines regarding hand hygiene, their awareness among healthcare professionals particularly among medical students is low. We have conducted a study to know the awareness of Hand hygiene practices among the undergraduate medical students (IInd MBBS – 5 semester).
Materials and Methods: A formal questionnaire on hand hygiene consisting of ten questions was distributed among IInd yr. medical students belonging to 5 semester and the responses were evaluated. A grading was done as according to performance as Excellent (8 – 10 responses correct), Good – Average (4 – 7 responses correct), poor (< / = 3 responses correct).
Results: A total of eighty participants volunteered for study which included 31 males and 49 females. On the whole 20% (16), 52.5% (42), 27.5% (22) were graded as excellent, good –average and poor respectively. Among female students 18% (9), 55.1% (27) and 26.5% (13) were graded as excellent, good –average and poor respectively. Among Male students 22.5% (7), 48.3% (15) and 29% (9) were graded as excellent, good –average and poor respectively.
Conclusion: The above result showed that the awareness about hand hygiene was only at a moderate level. Hence training in hand hygiene practices and their evaluation should be included as a part of undergraduate curriculum to achieve an enhanced outcome in this arena.
Keyword :
Hand hygiene, Practices, Hand wash, Hand rub.