Self-perceived hand hygiene practices among undergraduate nursing students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Publication Title

Journal of Research in Nursing

Volume

21

Issue

1

First Page

8

Keywords

compliance, hand hygiene, nursing instructor, nursing students

Last Page

19

DOI

10.1177/1744987115606959

Abstract

Abstract Limited research has investigated the hand hygiene practices of undergraduate nursing students. A descriptive self-report survey explored the predictors of self-perceived hand hygiene compliance using a convenience sample of 306 undergraduate nursing students enrolled at a southwestern Ontario university. Compliance was defined as the performance of hand hygiene at least 90% of the time in the moments both before and after direct patient contact. The self-reported compliance rate among study participants was 74.8%. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the independent predictors of hand hygiene compliance included concern about reprimand or discipline (odds ratio (OR) 4.324; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.465–12.758); motivation to protect patients from infection (OR 2.418; 95% CI 1.001–5.838); number of clinical placements (OR 0.815; 95% CI 0.702–0.947) and role modelling by the clinical instructor (OR 2.227; 95% CI 1.009–4.915). Other independent predictors were the perceived barriers of busyness (OR 0.231; 95% CI 0.126–0.423), forgetfulness (OR 0.356; 95% CI 0.186–0.678) and perceptions of alcohol rub-related skin damage (OR 0.163; 95% CI 0.070–0.380). The findings of this study provide research-based evidence that could be used by educators to understand better hand hygiene practices among undergraduate nursing students. © 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.

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