Assessment of hand hygiene knowledge and practices among the health care providers working at private clinics in Islamabad, Pakistan

Objective: To assess the hand hygiene knowledge and practices among health care providers as per World Health Organization criteria working at private clinics in Khanna Dak, Islamabad. Methodology: This cross sectional survey was conducted during June to August 2018 on health care providers from private clinics in Khanna Dak, Islamabad. Hand Hygiene questionnaire of World Health Organization was used. Participants were selected by convenient sampling from 50 private clinics. Data analysis was done in SPSS version 20. Results: Out of 105 health care providers, 44 (35.2%) were physicians, 18(14.4%) nurses and lab technicians, 12(11.4%) therapists and 6(9.6%) administrator staff. Out of total, 73(58.4) were male and only 11(8.8%) had any formal training of hand hygiene within last one year. Only 25 (23%) physicians and 7(6.7) nurses had good knowledge of use of antiseptic soap than the physiotherapists 2(1.9) Lab technician 6(5.7%) and administrator staff and dispensers 3(2.8%). Seventeen (16%) doctors had the knowledge about the use of hand sanitizers. The knowledge about the time required for rubbing the hands with alcohol based formulation was poor. Only 23(21%) had the knowledge about the effectiveness of rubbing hands with alcohol based formulation. Conclusion: The majority of health care providers had inadequate knowledge and poor compliance of the standard guidelines for hand hygiene. There is urgent need of short refresher courses regarding hand hygiene for health care personnel in clinic and hospital settings.