Evaluation of Hand Hygiene Practices of İnegöl State Hospital Health care professionals

Introduction and Aim: Hand hygiene is the cheapest and easiest method to prevent health-related infections. Determining the beliefs and practices related to hand hygiene is very important to increase compliance. In this study, it is aimed to determine the beliefs and practices of healthcare professionals towards hand hygiene, to determine the factors affecting them and the current hand hygiene compliance rates. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 437 people working in İnegöl State hospital between January 10 and December 31, 2022. Data were collected with Personal Information Form, Hand Hygiene Observation Form, Hand Hygiene Belief Scale and Hand Hygiene Practices Inventory form. The data of the variables were shown with frequency and percentage. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between hand hygiene practice inventory and belief score averages. Results: The hand hygiene practice inventory and hand hygiene belief scores of the healthcare professionals participating in the study were 63.45±6.35 and 85.32±8.25, respectively. It was determined that there was a weak positive and significant correlation between the two scales (r=0.307, p<0.001). Considering the compliance rates by indication, it was 89.6% before the patient, 82% before the aseptic procedures, and 98.7% after the patient. Hand hygiene compliance was determined as 92.3% in the nurse group, 83.9% in the doctor group, 97.6% in the surgical units, and hospital-wide compliance was determined as 90.3%. Conclusion: The answers given by the people to the inventory and the observation results were found to be directly proportional. It was determined that the belief in hand hygiene affects the practice of hand hygiene and the informed observation increases the general hand hygiene compliance. Of the five indications; It was thought that hand hygiene compliance was higher after the patient and this was due to the desire of people to protect themselves.