Healthcare professionals' hand hygiene: perspectives of nursing student's in patients/relatives role

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the views and attitudes of nursing students, as patients or relatives, on healthcare professionals' hand hygiene behavior and patient participation hand hygiene campaign.Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the nursing departments of the health and science faculties at two Turkish universities between 2021-2022. The study sample comprised 330 students. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The response rate of the questionnaire was 89.43%. Chi-square test was used in data analysis.Results: The mean age of students was 19.80 +/- 1.30 years, 76.1% were female, 50.9% stated they had received education regarding healthcare-associated infections (HAI). While 30.1% of students reported they performed hand hygiene 9-11 times in their daily lives, 54.6% reported performing 12-15 times in the hospital, and 96.4% of students expressed wondering if healthcare professionals performed hand hygiene before offering care during hospitalizations. Among students, 30.5% stated that reminders from patients and their relatives about performing hand hygiene before contact with patients would make them happy. There was a statistically significant difference between students' previous training in HAIs and hand hygiene as an important inpatient care (p<0.05).Conclusion: Nursing students had sufficient knowledge of hand hygiene and a positive attitude towards hand hygiene behaviors of healthcare professionals. Nursing students, such as patients and their relatives, can be included in hand hygiene campaigns for healthcare professionals, provided that the program steps are well planned.