Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: August | Volume: 8 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 29-34
Knowledge and Predictors of Hand Hygiene Practices among Nurses and Midwives in a Tertiary Care Maternity Hospital in Sri Lanka
Vishnukumar S1, Jayamanne MDCJP2, Kumara S3
1Lecturer in Paediatrics, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Eastern University’ Sri Lanka
2Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo
3Consultant neonatologist, Castle Street Hospital for women, Colombo
Corresponding Author: Vishnukumar S
ABSTRACT
Hand hygiene is an important component in infection control, which is crucial to prevent hospital acquired infection among patients’ especially preterm babies. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and adherence of the hand hygiene practices among nurses and midwives working at a tertiary care maternity hospital in Sri Lanka. Descriptive cross sectional study with self-administered questionnaire. Most questions were drawn from a previous similar study done in Canada in 2011 by Ryan and colleagues. All nurses and midwives were included in the study.
The response rate was 54.7% (127/232). Nurses were 79.5% (101/127) and midwives were 20.5% (26/127) among participants. Most of the respondents (62.2%) had not participated in a hand hygiene training programme. The self-reported hand hygiene practices were 94.4% (SD ±13.75) and intention to adhere on was 96.5% (SD ±7.98) among participants but there were no statistical significance in the intention and the self-reported hand hygiene practices. However there was a statistical significance between the self-reported hand hygiene practices and number of years working at the current institution. Most of the health care workers reported that workload (52.8%) and urgent patient’s needs (58.2%) were the barriers for the maintenance of the hand hygiene. In our study only 35.4% and 36.2% of participants practice hand hygiene as per the recommendation by WHO with respect to soap and water hand wash and alcohol based hand rub respectively. In our current study, even though the intension and self-reported hand hygiene compliance are higher among the participants, the participants are not aware about the proper hand hygiene techniques. Therefore regular hand hygiene training programmes are required to maintain good quality of care.
Key words: Barriers, Hand hygiene, Healthcare associated infections, Nurses, Self-reported hand hygiene practices.