Hand hygiene practice among laboratory workers in selected hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

One of the major challenges facing medical institutions is how to reduce healthcare-associated infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2009) observes that ignoring hand hygiene is the leading cause of nosocomial infections in various hospitals. Therefore, it is essential to address hand hygiene techniques that can be used to reduce incidences of healthcare-associated infections. This study aims to evaluate hand hygiene practices in Saudi Arabia as well as how it can be improved to reduce nosocomial infections within the institutions. This study fi nds that education has effectively improve the hospital laboratory workers hand hygiene practices. The study also holds that the leadership of the medical organizations also plays an essential role in supporting as well as promoting hand hygiene practices. As such, it is the fi nding of the current study that improving hand hygiene through the management is critical in facilitating reduction of hospital-acquired infections.