Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Hand Hygiene Among Medical Students in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) and emerging multi-drug resistance in nosocomial pathogens are perceived as a serious public health threat. Hands of healthcare workers (HCWs) become routinely colonized during patient care, serving as vehicles for transmission and leading to HCAIs. Hand hygiene (HH) is a globally accepted tool to avoid the broadcast of dangerous microorganisms and prevent HCAIs.

A cross-sectional study was carried out to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward HH among the medical students at Saveetha Medical College, Chennai, India. A 25-item validated questionnaire survey was formulated and circulated to 100 medical students of all four academic years.

There were 100 responses to the survey, and 44 (44%) participants performed HH appropriately for 20 seconds with alcohol-based hand rub. In our study, 25％ of the participants revealed that HH practices were not followed during emergencies. Many participants (40%) stated that the lack of sink, soaps, alcohol-based sanitizers, paper towels, and water is the reason for not performing HH.

The gross knowledge of HH of the participants is moderate, but there were gaps between the knowledge and practice. Hence, it is essential to conduct structured training sessions and surveillance programs for medical students to address these gaps in knowledge and the correct HH procedures.