[Hospital hygiene and medical students]

Training in hospital hygiene is essential to prevent nosocomial infections and to promote health care quality. A survey was made on Caen medical students for hand hygiene habits, personal medical equipment, and white coat cleaning as well as on their opinion concerning hospital hygiene training quality.

An anonymous questionnaire was submitted to medical students in third, fourth, and fifth year of medical studies.

Hygiene was "always" or "often" a priority (94%) when students were working in clinical areas. Nevertheless, nearly half of them (46%) were not aware of the difference between simple hand washing and antiseptic hand washing. The white coat was too large for 50% of students. The white coat was cleaned on average every 3.5 weeks. Only 40% students cleaned their stethoscope regularly and 23% their reflex hammer. At last, 66.5% of students were dissatisfied by hospital hygiene training judged insufficient and unfit for their practice.

the medical students' general knowledge of hospital hygiene must be improved. Further initial training should improve practices.