Abstract:

Background: Effective hand hygiene is essential for reducing healthcare associated infections. However, compliance of healthcare workers to hand hygiene guidelines are reportedly poor. It is important therefore to instill adequate knowledge and good attitudes and practices at the time of primary training of the healthcare workers. The aim of the study was to assess hand hygiene practices among healthcare workers in Infectious Diseases Hospital Kano, Nigeria. It was hoped that the study would benefit all health care workers through making recommendations aimed at improving hand hygiene compliance.

Methods: Quantitative, Cross-sectional study, using a self-administered Questionnaire to collect data on 260 participants. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0.

Results: The result shows that 260 participants responded to the questionnaire. The majority of participants had good knowledge of hand hygiene and younger participants practiced hand hygiene more than older ones (p<.05).

Conclusion: The study highlighted the practices of hand hygiene among health care workers and the status of hand hygiene resources in the hospital which have a negative impact on hand hygiene practices demonstrated that compliance with hand hygiene compliance among health care workers remains unacceptably low, despite the irrefutable scientific evidence that hands are the most common vehicle for transmission of pathogens. A hospital-wide awareness program aiming at healthcare workers and adoption of alcohol-based hand rubs at the point of care can help improve compliance to hand hygiene.

Keywords: Hand hygiene, Health care workers, Hand hygiene practices, Health care associated infection, Resource.

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