The Investigation of Health Workers Beliefs and Practices for Hand Hygiene

Introduction: This research; that is a descriptive and cross-sectional was planned, determine the beliefs and practices of the healthcare workers hand hygiene (physicians and nurses) working in the internal, surgical, emergency and intensive care units of the hospital. Materials and Methods: The population of the study consisted of physicians and nurses working in the internal, surgical, emergency and intensive care units of a public hospital in Izmir (n = 600). Our sample (n = 260) consisted of 110 nurses, 89 expert physicians and 61 assistant physicians who agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected through one-to-one interview method and data collection tools. Data collection tools are The Personal Information Questionnaire developed by the researcher, Hand Hygiene Belief Scale and Hand Hygiene Practices Inventory. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SASS) 21.0 computer program used for statistical analysis of the research data. Researchers evaluated number and percentage distributions of the collected data, average and standard deviations given as individual tables. It was used number percentage distribution, independent samples t test and Mann-Whitney U for relationship between two groups, ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis to compare the more than two groups. Results: 61.5% of the health workers participated in the study were women (n= 160), 42.3% were nurses (n = 100) and 77.7% were undergraduate (n = 202). The average age of the research sample was 35.7 +/- 7.41, and the study year was 11.9 +/- 7.8, the current service working year is 5.06 +/- 4.44. 45.1% of the employees stated that they worked with an 8-hour shift. Hand Hygiene Belief Scale average score was 87.50 +/- 9.35, Hand Hygiene Practice Inventory average score was 64.67 +/- 5.03, Hand Hygiene Importance sub-scale mean score was 65.06 +/- 6.79 and belief sub-scale mean score was 25.17 +/- 6.03. Conclusion: In our study, healthcare worker's hand hygiene beliefs and practices was found to be high. It is thought that inservice training and the Infection Control Committee's effective plans.