Knowledge, practices and beliefs on hand hygiene of nursing students in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background Hand hygiene is one of the most effective strategies to prevent healthcare- associated infection. Hand hygiene practice has the potential to prevent suffering and save the lives of patients, as well as to reduce hospital costs. Previous studies have shown that compliance with hand hygiene guidelines in healthcare workers is generally low. Investigating the knowledge and perception of nursing students can help understand the knowledge, practices and beliefs relating to hand hygiene which could inform curriculum design and development of future educational materials.

Aim To explore hand hygiene knowledge, beliefs and practices of nursing students in clinical settings

Method A cross-sectional survey of full-time pre-registration university undergraduate nursing students with clinical experience was conducted. Data was collected via the well validated self-reported Hand Hygiene Questionnaire with approval (van de Mortel, 2010). Questions included demographics, hand hygiene knowledge (10 multiple choice questions), hand hygiene practices (13 items on a 5-point Likert scale) and hand hygiene beliefs (22 items on a 5-point Likert scale) and was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Results A total of 506 questionnaires were distributed, with 421 being returned (83.2%). The majority of the respondents were female (70.31%). Respondents’ hand hygiene knowledge mean score was 7.33/10 (SD 1.52), practices mean score was 4.76/5 (SD 0.30), beliefs mean score was 4.03/5 (SD 0.34) and self- reported compliance rate with hand hygiene guidelines was 88.17%. However, low knowledge score associated with use of alcohol based hand rubs was found.

Conclusion The participants showed moderate knowledge, good practices, positive belief and high compliance rate with respect to WHO guidelines and similar studies on hand hygiene. Putting more emphasis on education about knowledge in alcohol-based hand rub and promoting the use of hand cream to prevent skin irritations after hand hygiene was recommended. Further studies of other healthcare professionals to prevent healthcare associated infection are suggested.