Hand Hygiene Practices among Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Prospective Descriptive Study

Prospective Descriptive study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Pune, India, Methods Aim- to evaluate how well the health care workers follow the recommended guidelines of hand hygiene practices. Objective- (i) to assess the hand hygiene practices among health care workers (ii) to assess the reason for non-compliance in hand hygiene practices. Inclusion Criteria- Health care workers involved in direct patient care activities in tertiary care hospital. They included the Doctors, Nurses& paramedical nursing staff. Exclusion Criteria- Health care workers who were unwilling for the study. A validated tool and an observational scale are used as the tool for this study. Results most of the study population belonged to 20-29 years (36.67 %) and comprised maximally of Nurses~ 57 % (16), 50 % of subjects used soap and water alone for hand hygiene up to 11-40 % times. One person did not use soap and water for hand hygiene.53.33 % (16) used alcohol based hand rub up to 41-70 % of time and 16.67 % (5) subjects used alcohol based hand rub up for 71-100 % of time, all subjects performed hand hygiene after contact with body fluids, Hand hygiene compliance was more than 75 % in four out of five situations. The least compliance rate was observed with after touching patients surroundings i. e 60.76 %, Nurses showed more compliance than other health care workers (90.82 %). Conclusion Health care workers are the most common vehicle for the transmission of HAIs (Hospital Acquired Infections) from patient to patient and within the health care environment. A large proportion of the infection acquired attributed to cross contamination and transmission of microbes from hands of HCWs (Health Care Workers) to patients. Hand hygiene is the most simple and effective method for the prevention of these hospital& community acquired infections.