The impact of hand hygiene awareness programme on health care professionals' compliance with hand hygiene in a tertiary care hospital: A clinical audit

Abstract

BackgroundHand hygiene is the most cost effective method to control the health care associated infections. Despite knowing the fact the compliance of health care professionals with hand hygiene is not up to the mark. MethodsAn observational, prospective study was designed to assess knowledge, and attitude of health care professionals towards hand hygiene practices. The impact of hand hygiene awareness programme (HHAP) on the compliance of 106 health care professionals working in paediatric medical and surgical wards of a tertiary care hospital was also evaluated. Clinical audit comprised of 200 observations each before and after the HHAP was done. ResultsOf total 106 health care professionals 73 (68.8%) were nurses, 33 (31.13%) doctors with mean age (years) of 32.14±7.4. Mean knowledge and attitude scores of HCP were 19.28±2.4and 39.26±3.9 respectively. Majority HCP had good knowledge (91/106, 85.8%) and favourable attitude (89/106, 83.9%) related to hand hygiene practices. Significant improvement in hand hygiene compliance was observed among the health care professionals following the hand hygiene awareness programme (p<0.001). ConclusionHand hygiene awareness programme should be continued on ongoing basis to improve the compliance of HCP with hand hygiene practices.