KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF HAND HYGIENE AMONG MEDICAL CARE PROVIDERS IN (BASHAIER) TEACHING HOSPITAL, KHARTOUM, SUDAN.

*Dr. Mohamed Osman Elamin Bushara, Prof Hatim Rahimtullah, Liban Moahamed Abdulie Liban, Mohamed Ismail Abdullah Mohamed and Amal Abdelkarim Nour Adam

ABSTRACT

Hand hygiene is a term that means a process for the removal of both dirt and germs from the hands. Hand washing is the single most important method of preventing the spread of infectious diseases, studies in developing countries show that lack of awareness and knowledge among medical care providers regarding the importance of hand washing and hand hygiene practices specially at work sites. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of hand washing and hand hygiene among medical care providers in (Bashaier) teaching hospital, Khartoum, Sudan, a facility-based descriptive study to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hand hygiene among medical care providers had been conducted. The study clarified that only 41% of the respondents always clean hands when dealing with patients, equipments and tools within the hospital, while 64% of causes of not practicing hand hygiene practices among respondents was being busy, showing that practice of hand hygiene during work is low. Also the study clarified that 75.63 of the respondents usually wear gloves before potential contact with body fluid and mucous membrane while 24.37% don't wear gloves in those cases. The study recommended that a multifaceted interventional behavioral hand hygiene program should be implemented for improving the compliance to hand hygiene guidelines among all medical care providers.

Keywords: Hand hygiene, Medical care providers.