Health Care Workers: Knowledge and Attitude Towards Hand Hygiene in Educational Hospitals of Zanjann in 2014

Health care-related infections are serious problems that influence patient›s safety settings. Hand hygiene is the most effective method for preventing these infections.
The current study aimed at investigating health care workers› knowledge and attitude towards hand hygiene in intensive care units of educational hospitals affiliated to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, during year 2014.
The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which was conducted on 88 health care workers of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Coronary Care Unit (CCU) in two educational hospitals affiliated to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, who were selected by random sampling. Knowledge and attitude of the participants toward hand hygiene, was examined through World Health Organization (WHO) recommended standardized questionnaire and researcher-designed questionnaire, respectively. All health care workers, including physicians, nurses and others (radiology and laboratory technicians), were enrolled in the study during May 2014. Collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software, version 16.
The findings showed that none of the participants had poor knowledge, 47.7% had moderate knowledge, 34.1% had good knowledge, and only 18.2% had very good knowledge. Regarding attitude, 95.4% of the participants had a positive attitude towords hand hygiene. T-test and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests on demographic characteristics also showed that variables, such as level of education, professional status, and the last round of retraining course with knowledge and workplace had a significant relationship with attitude. The result of the correlation test showed a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude.
Discussion and Despite the positive attitude of intensive care unit staff towards hand hygiene, their knowledge is not desirable and optimal, and having favorable knowledge and performance requires more training.