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HAND HYGIENE PRACTICES IN JUNIOR DOCTORS AND NURSES OF LAHORE GENERAL HOSPITAL

Ameena, Khurram Khaliq Bhinder, Rafia Zubair

Introduction: Hand hygiene is the most important health-care associated factor considered in the prevention of hospital acquired infections. Hand hygiene is the act of cleaning hands for the purpose of decontamination of microorganisms and chemicals. Study Design: The cross-sectional observational study was conducted to examine the hand hygiene practices in junior doctors and nurses of Lahore General Hospital. Study Duration: The study was conducted from 11th April 2018 to 3oth May 2018. Objectives: To determine the hand hygiene practices among junior doctors and nurses; to corelate number of patients visiting OPD with number of times doctor/nurses practiced hand hygiene. The objectives also included comparison between different disinfecting methods in relation to doctor’s precedence for disinfection and to determine any factors that affect the compliance. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 doctors and nurses from April 11th to May 30th 2018 at LGH. Structured questionnaire based on WHO concept of ‘Five Moments of Hand Hygiene’ was used to evaluate the knowledge and compliance for hand hygiene. Results: The analysis of study revealed 45% doctors/nurses has received formal training in hand hygiene while 55% of doctors and nurses hasnot received the training in last 3 years. Most of the doctors and nurses use alcohol-based hand rub for hand hygiene after seeing every patient and many of doctors and nurses neglect hand hygiene practice as it is inconvenient and time taking procedure. Conclusion: From the findings,it is concluded that most of the doctors and nurses neglect hand hygiene practice as they lack training and complete knowledge of hand hygiene which is an important factor in prevention of hospital acquired infections.