Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Hand Hygiene among Medical and Nursing Students

Aims: This study aims to determine and compare the levels of handwashing knowledge, attitude and practice among medical and nursing students of All Saints University School of Medicine, Dominica.

Study Design: This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: All Saints University School of Medicine, Dominica between May and August, 2021.

Methodology: A total of 73 students (26 MD students, 18 Clinical students, 22 Nursing students and 7 Pre-med students) of All Saints University Dominica participated in the study, after their informed consent was obtained. The study data was collected from registered medical and nursing students of All Saints University, Dominica. This involved the use of a self-designed, structured questionnaire that was electronically distributed to students and analyzed electronically using SPSS version 21.

Results: Though all participants admitted having heard of hand hygiene practices, all nursing students (100%) affirmed having sufficient knowledge about hand hygiene while 28.6% of the pre-med students participating did not feel they had sufficient knowledge (P<0.05). Also, a large percentage of the respondents that were nursing students (90.9) claimed to have had a formal training in hand hygiene. This was closely followed by clinical students (72.2%) while MD and pre-med students only had 38.5% and 28.6% respectively.

Conclusion: Although there seem to be a high level of awareness of hand hygiene among the participants, certain gaps in knowledge still exist which may be due to lack of proper training. There seem to be a better level of practice of hand hygiene among the nursing students and those in clinicals, compared to other medical students which draws the need to re-introduce formal training on hand hygiene into medical schools especially from early years of training.