A survey on hand hygiene practice among anaesthetists

Abstract

Background The current prevalence of health care associated infections (HCAIs) is a major public health concern. Hand-mediated transmission is the major contributory factor to HCAIs and the intra operative environment serves as a risk factor for the development of hospital acquired infections. Failure to wear gloves and effective hand washing on patient contact are particular problems in the practice of anaesthesia where there is a high incidence of exposure to patient blood and saliva. Materials and Method Data was collected through a two page questionnaire from 130 anaesthetists in National Hospital of Sri Lanka irrespective of the seniority or the position. Duly filled sheets were collected after one month and analyzed through SPSS 13 to determine the level of adherence. Results 130 questionnaires were distributed and 100 received duly completed. 63% of participants were from general surgical section, 22% from neurosurgical section and the rest were from the cardiothoracic section.In general 25% of the female participants always wore gloves before handling each patient. 61% from both males and females confirmed wearing gloves only sometimes. 90% of the female participants always wore gloves before inserting NG tubes whereas only 70% of males did so.It was found that only 6.6% of the participants wore gloves when performing i.v. cannulation in cardiothoracic practice. 53% of the cardiothoracic anaesthetists never wore gloves when performing i.v. cannulation. Conclusion and Recommendations It was revealed that hand hygiene practices among anaesthetists are not at the satisfactory level and it is recommended to form a proper institutional guideline in infection control in anaesthetic practice. Further it is also recommended to conduct general awareness programs regularly and make hand hygiene a routine practice. Also a gradual culture change is recommended within theatres with guidance in adhering to proper hand hygiene practices.