Hand hygiene amongst health workers in a teaching hospital - A kap study

Abstract

Though relatively simple procedure, Hand Hygiene compliance rates tend to be highly variable and poor. Material & Methods: cross-sectional KAP study was conducted at SMHS Hospital, a teaching hospital in Srinagar, India. Study subjects were the nursing staff working in different departments of the Hospital. Self-structured one plus WHO, s hand hygiene questionnaire for health care workers was administered. Almost 80% respondents skipped hand washing when in hurry. Only small percentage of 12 and 28 used to hand wash before touching a patient and before doing simple procedure respectively. Conclusion: This study depicts the poor compliance of health workers regarding hand hygiene. Introduction Every 1 in 20 hospitalised patients is affected by Health Care Associated Infections (HAI) [1]. Most of the infections are spread via health care worker’s hands and Hand Hygiene is the single most effective measure to prevent this spread. Though relatively simple procedure, Hand Hygiene compliance rates tend to be highly variable and poor [2]. Hand Hygiene is a general term referring to any action of hand cleansing by using water & detergent and/or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitization for the removal of transient micro-organisms from hands [3]. Annually, approximately 2.4 M deaths can be prevented by good hygiene practices, reliable sanitation & drinking water [4]. A Meta -analysis showed that improvements in hand washing reduced incidence of URTI and gastrointestinal illnesses by 21% and 31% respectively [5]. Though preventable with simple hand washing, Health Care Workers are reluctant to adopt recommended practices to curb the infection [6]. Lack of appropriate facilities, high staff to patient ratio, insufficient knowledge and attitude of staff may be the reasons responsible for lack of compliance to hand washing [7]. In India, especially in J&K there is paucity of studies exploring this subject, although the prevalence of HAI is high in whole Asia [8], JK being no exception. To improve Health Care Workers compliance with health Hygiene, it is therefore necessary to consider the hindering factors and attempt to improve them. With this background, this study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practices among healthcare workers of SMHS hospital and then to identify gaps and enhance good practices.