Hand Hygiene Beliefs and Practices Conditions of Nurses in the Intensive Care Unit: Descriptive Study

Abstract

It is very important to comply with hand hygiene rules in the prevention of human-to-human infectious diseases (such as coronovirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus) and healthcare-associated infections. 1 The importance of hand hygiene is once again understood with the coronovirus pandemic (2020) in the world. Healthcare related infections, another infec-ABS TRACT Objective: The research was carried out to determine the beliefs and practices of nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU) about hand hygiene. Material and Methods: The research is cross-sectional and descriptive and was conducted between October 2019 and January 2020, with nurses working in the mixed ICU of a state hospital , the pediatric and neonatal care units of a city hospital and a university hospital. One hundred thirty-nine nurses working in the ICU and willing to participate in the study were included in the study. Personal Information Form, Hand Hygiene Belief Scale and Practice Inventory were used in the research. In the evaluation of the data, number, percentage, mean, t-test and one-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall-Wallis tests were used. Results: Nurses' hand hygiene belief score was 87.34±9.73, and practice score was 67.42±4.98. It has been determined that female nurses and nurses between the ages of 31-40 have high hand hygiene belief and practice scores. A significant difference was found between gender, age and hand hygiene belief score. It was found that the hand hygiene belief and practice score of the nurses who graduated from undergraduate and higher education were higher. It was determined that those who received hand hygiene training had higher positive attitudes (p=0.016). The lowest practice score was formed after the invasive procedure (4.64±0.69), after entering the isolation room (4.64±0.75) and after contact with the patient's secretions (4.64±0.74). Conclusion: It has been determined that nurses generally have a positive attitude and practice hand hygiene. Even if it is stated that hand hygiene is done, it is important to transform it into behavior. Hand hygiene observations and training should be done continuously, compliance should be further increased, especially after contact with the patient and patient's secretions. Institutions should develop and maintain multifaceted strategies to increase hand hygiene compliance.