The Efficacy of Teaching hand Hygiene to Medical students: An Interventional Study

Background: Hand hygiene is one of the most important measures to prevent and reduce the incidence of hospital-associated infections.
Objective: The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of an educational program on medical students’ knowledge, attitude and compliance with hand hygiene at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: All medical students who had passed physiopathology courses were selected to participate in this interventional study. A baseline self-reported questionnaire was distributed among the participants to fill out. A one-day teaching workshop was held to discuss the importance of hand hygiene. The participants filled out the questionnaire before attending, on finishing and 3 months after the workshop. Repeated Measures ANOVA test was used for analysis of the data.
Results: There was a significant difference between the pre-test scores and late post-test scores of the questionnaire (p=0.049). There was a significant difference between the pre-test and the late post-test scores in knowledge and performance categories (P=0.045, P=0.001). However, regarding the pre-test and immediate post-test scores, a significant difference was found only in the performance category (P=0.002).
Conclusion: Educational programs can improve the knowledge and performance of medical students in short and long time periods.