The impact of a hand hygiene workshop on improving the knowledge of hand hygiene of medical students

• Main Authors: N. P. Senanayake, V. Navaratne, A. Balasuriya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sri Lankan Society for Microbiology 2019-10-01
• Series: Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: hand hygiene, hospital acquired infections, health care workers
• Online Access: https://sljid.sljol.info/articles/8241
• ISSN: 2012-8169; 2448-9654

<p><strong>Introduction and Objectives</strong>: Knowledge of hand hygiene is important for medical students. The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge before and after a workshop on hand hygiene held for medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: A self-administered, pre-tested validated questionnaire, based on hand hygiene guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), was distributed among the medical students before and after conducting a workshop on hand hygiene<strong>.</strong>Results were assessed by comparing the current guidelines set by the WHO with the knowledge of hand hygiene among the medical students.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: All 177 students participated in the study before conducting the workshop<strong>. </strong>There were 104 <strong>(</strong>58<strong>.</strong>8<strong>%) </strong>preclinical and 73 <strong>(</strong>41<strong>.</strong>2%<strong>) </strong>clinical students<strong>. </strong>Of the 104 preclinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of<strong> “</strong>My five moments for hand hygiene<strong>” </strong>approach<strong> (</strong>hand hygiene before direct contact with patients, after direct contact with patients, before clean<strong>/</strong>aseptic procedures, after contact with blood<strong>/</strong>body fluid and after contact with patient<strong>’</strong>s surrounding<strong>) </strong>before conducting the workshop were 53<strong>.</strong>8%, 67<strong>.</strong>3<strong>%</strong>, 51.0%<strong>,</strong> 88<strong>.</strong>5% and 34<strong>.</strong>6% respectively<strong>.</strong><strong> </strong>Of the 73 clinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of the <strong>“</strong>My five moments for hand hygiene<strong>” </strong>approach before conducting the workshop were 49<strong>.</strong>3%, 63<strong>.</strong>0%, 87<strong>.</strong>7%, 94<strong>.</strong>5% and 27<strong>.</strong>4% respectively<strong>. </strong>Of the 112 students who participated in the workshop, there were 68 <strong>(</strong>60<strong>.</strong>7%<strong>) </strong>preclinical and 44 <strong>(</strong>39<strong>.</strong>3%<strong>) </strong>clinical students<strong>. </strong>Of the 68 preclinical students, 77<strong>.</strong>9%, 79<strong>.</strong>4%, 91<strong>.</strong>2%, 95<strong>.</strong>6% and 70<strong>.</strong>6% knew the importance of the <strong>“</strong>My five moments for hand hygiene<strong>” </strong>approach post workshop<strong>.</strong><strong> </strong>Post workshop, the percentage of the 44 clinical students who knew the importance of <strong>“</strong>My five moments for hand hygiene<strong>” </strong>approach were 90<strong>.</strong>9%, 88<strong>.</strong>6%, 93<strong>.</strong>2%, 97<strong>.</strong>7% and 81<strong>.</strong>8% respectively<strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: The pre workshop knowledge of hand hygiene among the two categories of medical students was not satisfactory<strong>. </strong>The knowledge on each component of “My five moments for hand hygiene” concept improved to more than 70% after conducting the workshop.</p><p> </p>