Date of Award

Winter 2014

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Nursing

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences, Education, Hand hygiene, Hygiene compliance, Handwashing, Nursing students

Supervisor

El-Masri, Maher

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The consistent performance of hand hygiene by health care providers is the single most effective strategy to prevent the transmission of health care associated infections. An anonymous questionnaire to explore self-perceived hand hygiene compliance rates, predictors of compliance, and barriers to compliance was completed by 306 nursing students registered at the University of Windsor, in Ontario, Canada. Overall, 74.8% of participants were considered to be hand hygiene compliant, indicating that their compliance was greater than 90% both before and after having had direct patient contact. Logistic regression analysis suggested that seven variables were independent predictors of hand hygiene compliance: participant's concerns about receiving reprimand or discipline if hand hygiene guidelines were not followed; participant's motivation to protect the patient from infection; number of clinical placements; busyness; forgetfulness; participant's perception that alcohol hand rub damages the skin; and participant's belief that their clinical nursing instructor consistently performed hand hygiene when necessary.

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