Evaluating the performance of nursing students in observing hand hygiene in hospital internship units

Nursing students can play a major role in transmitting infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of nursing students in observing hand hygiene.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 nursing students participated in an internship at Fatemeh Zahra (PBUH) Nursing School in Ramsar in 2019. The sampling method was simple random. The hand hygiene behavior of nursing students was observed in 200 situations. For data collection, the observational checklist of hand hygiene of the Ministry of Health was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS18 through descriptive statistics, Chi-square and T-test.

Among 200 students, 113 (56.5%) and 87 (43.05%) were female and male, respectively. The average number of cases of hand hygiene was 62.5%. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between different semesters in relation to hand hygiene behavior (P <0.05). Thus, the rate of hand hygiene compliance by students was lower in higher semesters. The highest rate of hand hygiene (37.6%) was performed in the position after contact with the patient. Handwashing with soap and water (60.8%) was done more frequently by the students than using an alcoholic solution (39.2%).

The results indicate that the higher the semester of students was the lower the level of hand hygiene. It is suggested that further studies should be conducted on nursing students in order to determine the causes and find practical solutions to promote hand hygiene among students and to teach them basic values.