Knowledge, Perception, and Practices of Hand Hygiene Among Medical and Paramedical Students at a Tertiary Care Institute in Uttarakhand.

BACKGROUND

Healthcare-associated infections or nosocomial infections are considered to be one of the leading causes of increased morbidity and mortality in patients. Hand hygiene is one of the simplest and most effective infection control measures to prevent nosocomial infections. Medical and paramedical students are the foundation of any healthcare system. So, induction and further training during the study period are required to build a robust healthcare system with responsible clinicians.

AIM

To access the knowledge, attitude, and practices of hand hygiene among medical and paramedical students at a tertiary care hospital in Uttarakhand.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was done among medical and paramedical students in a tertiary care center at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The total number of study participants was 216, surveyed through a standard WHO-hand hygiene questionnaire. The questionnaire was circulated among students through Google Forms consisting of a total of 26 questions on demographics, knowledge, perception, and practices of hand hygiene. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata software, version 11 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA).

RESULTS

The overall knowledge score for hand hygiene in medical students was 16.73 whereas it was 15.17 among paramedical students. According to categories of knowledge it was found to be moderate in 48% (82 out of 147) of the medical students and 63.31% (43 out of 69) of the paramedical students. Both the groups perceived that hand hygiene is an important measure to prevent hospital-acquired infections whereas the practices were not so good in both the groups.

CONCLUSION

The present study reveals that there were knowledge gaps between medical and paramedical students regarding knowledge of hand hygiene. Overall scores were better among medical students as compared to paramedical students. Moderate knowledge scores in both groups emphasize a regular need for induction training of the students in the institute.