Assessment of knowledge on hand hygiene among final year medical undergraduates

Abstract

Inadequate hand hygiene remains one of the main reasons for the spread of hospital-acquired infections, and now it is regarded as a key element of infection control activities. Hand hygiene practices are faulty in most healthcare settings. The present study was aimed to determine knowledge on hand hygiene among final year medical undergraduates. This was an institution-based descriptive cross-sectional study. The study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital and medical college in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology after obtaining ethical clearance from the institution. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants. All participants were given self-reporting questionnaires to fill. The questionnaire form contained questions based on hand hygiene knowledge assessment (obtained from the 2009 Global patient safety strategy initiative WHO guidelines). A total of 110 medical undergraduates were included in the study (male, 47 (42.7%), female, 63 (57.3%)). A total of 14 participants scored less than 50% and accounted for 12.7%. Seventy-eight participants scored between 50-74, which accounted for 70.9%. It was noticed that good knowledge (≥ 75) on hand hygiene was least and accounted for 16.4%. In the present study, knowledge on hand hygiene was found to be a moderate level in the majority of final year medical graduates.