COMPARATIVE STUDY ON KNOWLEDGE OF HAND HYGIENE AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS, RESIDENT DOCTORS, AND NURSES AT TERTIARY HEALTH INSTITUTION OF UTTAR PRADESH

Abstract

Objectives: Comparative study on knowledge of proper hand hygiene among junior resident doctors, junior nurses, and undergraduate medical students and recommendation to improve its awareness at the level of Tertiary Health Care. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study conducted among undergraduate medical students, junior doctors, and junior nurses at the tertiary care hospital of government medical college, for a period of 3 months duration. The selection of study subjects was done by purposive sampling method from each respective group of health service providers. A self-structured closed-ended questionnaire related to hand hygiene knowledge with the help of the “WHO hand hygiene questionnaire for Health Workers” and the knowledge was assessed. Appropriate software SPSS version 21 applied for analysis. Results: Overall response rate of participants was 95%. Moderate number (69.9%) of health-care providers knew about the “common route of transmission of microbes” while knowledge of “germs on or around the patient be frequent source of infection” was poor (21.8%). The knowledge of medical students (63.9%) and junior doctors (60%) was found to be significantly higher than nurses (5.6%), (p=0.001) for “both hand rub and hand washing are equally effective against microbes.” Overall, low level of knowledge for hand hygiene was among nurses (16.7%), doctors (14%), and medical students (34.7%). Conclusions: Most respondents show moderate knowledge for hand hygiene but there is still need of raising awareness for proper hand hygiene while providing health-care services to patient.