Abstract
Objective: The objective of the study was to examine the knowledge of Polish physicians and medical students about the role of hand hygiene (HH) in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention. Study design: A survey was conducted using an author-prepared questionnaire, which was filled out on the first day of hospital work (or internship) by newly admitted physicians who had worked in other hospitals and students of different medical schools in Poland. Methods: 100 respondents participated in the study: 28 students, 18 medical interns and 54 physicians. Results: As many as 3/4 of physicians and students did not use the HH techniques correctly. The respondents declared that they perform HH in the following situations: 74.4% of respondents before an aseptic task; 60.8% before patient contact; 57.0% after patient contact; 11.5% after body fluid exposure risk, and only two respondents (1.1%) after contact with patient surroundings. 64% of respondents declared that their supervisor checked their knowledge of the HH technique when they were touching patients, but their supervisors checked the five instances for HH only in the case of 27 respondents (27%). Students experienced any control of HH in the workplace less often. Interns and physicians mentioned that the most important preventive action in HAI is HH, but for students it is the use of gloves. Conclusions: The level of knowledge and skills of physicians and students in the field of HH is insufficient. Deficiencies in skills and knowledge of HH were identified as early as at the level of the first internship.
Highlights
The first recommendations for hand hygiene (HH) in medical settings were initially based on the recommendation to wash hands with soap and water and rinsing hands with an antiseptic agent was recommended only if water was unavailable
The most important activity indicated by interns (I) and physicians (P) was HH, and according to medical students (MS) it was the use of gloves
The use of triangulation, involving three methods to collect data, was applied in this study to deepen research in the field of HH and, in particular, to broaden the knowledge of the context of the phenomenon studied. Both quantitative and qualitative studies responded to the questions asked by the authors of this paper regarding poor compliance with HH rules by physicians
Summary
The first recommendations for hand hygiene (HH) in medical settings were initially based on the recommendation to wash hands with soap and water and rinsing hands with an antiseptic agent was recommended only if water was unavailable. HH should be applied at five moments as indicated by the WHO: (1) before patient contact; (2) before an aseptic task; (3) after body fluid exposure risk; (4) after patient contact; (5) after contact with patient surroundings [2,3]. It was confirmed by Allagranzi et al [4] that the WHO campaign in the field of HH is effective in numerous studies that were subjected to meta-analysis. Public Health 2017, 14, 1026; doi:10.3390/ijerph14091026 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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