IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i5p2590-d510902.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hand Areas Which Are Commonly Missed during Hand Disinfection by Nursing Students Who Completed a Basic Educational Course in Hand Hygiene

Author

Listed:
  • Agnieszka Gniadek

    (Department of Nursing Management and Epidemiological Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-501 Kraków, Poland)

  • Beata Ogórek-Tęcza

    (Department of Nursing Management and Epidemiological Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-501 Kraków, Poland)

  • Anna Inglot

    (Postgraduate Student at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-501 Kraków, Poland)

  • Anna Nowacka

    (Department of Nursing Management and Epidemiological Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-501 Kraków, Poland)

  • Agnieszka Micek

    (Department of Nursing Management and Epidemiological Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-501 Kraków, Poland)

Abstract

Background: Teaching nursing students how to correctly perform hand hygiene procedures may guarantee a reduction in transmitting pathogens through direct contact and, thus, it may lead to a decrease in the number of hospital infections. The aim of the study, which was conducted in low fidelity simulation conditions, was to assess the performance and the efficiency of a hand-rubbing disinfection technique among nursing students on the last day of their course. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in a group of 190 nursing students studying at the Jagiellonian University and it focused on the performed hand-rubbing disinfection procedure. The accuracy of the task performance was assessed by measuring the percentage of the amount of Fluo-Rub (B. Braun) fluorescent alcohol-based gel remaining on students’ hands after disinfection. The gel was rubbed into particular hand parts including four surfaces (left palm, right palm, left back and right back) divided into thirteen areas (I–XIII) and each surface was examined separately. The results were then dichotomized based on the cut-off point of 10% and two categories: “clean” and “dirty” were established. Additionally, the range of negligence in the disinfection procedure was assessed by counting the total number of the areas classified as “dirty”. The comparison of continuous and categorical variables was conducted by means of Friedman’s and Cochrane’s tests, respectively. Results: It was found out that the palm surfaces that were commonly missed during hand disinfection included the whole thumb (I and VI), the fingertip of the little finger (V) and the midpalm (XIII), whereas in the case of back surfaces (on both right and left hand) the most commonly missed areas were the fingertips and the whole thumb I–VI. Only 30 students (13%) had all 52 areas of both hands completely clean, whereas more than one third—66 students (33%)—failed to disinfect properly more than 10 areas out of all assessed ones on the surfaces of both hands. Conclusions: In the examined group of nursing students, a significant lack of compliance with hand disinfection procedures was observed and it was related mainly to thumbs and back parts of both hands. Therefore, it is essential to conduct systematic training sessions and assessment of hand hygiene procedures for nursing students at the end of every educational stage as it can lead to their developing these skills properly.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnieszka Gniadek & Beata Ogórek-Tęcza & Anna Inglot & Anna Nowacka & Agnieszka Micek, 2021. "Hand Areas Which Are Commonly Missed during Hand Disinfection by Nursing Students Who Completed a Basic Educational Course in Hand Hygiene," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2590-:d:510902
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2590/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2590/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Burcu Ceylan & Ulku Gunes & Leyla Baran & Huri Ozturk & Gul Sahbudak, 2020. "Examining the hand hygiene beliefs and practices of nursing students and the effectiveness of their handwashing behaviour," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(21-22), pages 4057-4065, November.
    2. Simona Kelcikova & Lucia Mazuchova & Lubica Bielena & Lenka Filova, 2019. "Flawed self‐assessment in hand hygiene: A major contributor to infections in clinical practice?," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(11-12), pages 2265-2275, June.
    3. Maria Luisa Cristina & Marina Sartini & Anna Maria Spagnolo, 2019. "Serratia marcescens Infections in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-10, February.
    4. Marta Wałaszek & Małgorzata Kołpa & Zdzisław Wolak & Anna Różańska & Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach, 2017. "Poor Hand Hygiene Procedure Compliance among Polish Medical Students and Physicians—The Result of an Ineffective Education Basis or the Impact of Organizational Culture?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-10, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Achal Dhariwal & Polona Rajar & Gabriela Salvadori & Heidi Aarø Åmdal & Dag Berild & Ola Didrik Saugstad & Drude Fugelseth & Gorm Greisen & Ulf Dahle & Kirsti Haaland & Fernanda Cristina Petersen, 2024. "Prolonged hospitalization signature and early antibiotic effects on the nasopharyngeal resistome in preterm infants," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Vicky L. Baillie & Shabir A. Madhi & Vida Ahyong & Courtney P. Olwagen, 2023. "Metagenomic sequencing of post-mortem tissue samples for the identification of pathogens associated with neonatal deaths," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Giuseppina Caggiano & Francesco Triggiano & Giusy Diella & Francesca Apollonio & Marco Lopuzzo & Adriana Mosca & Stefania Stolfa & Carlo Pazzani & Marta Oliva & Carla Calia & Nicola Laforgia & Lidia D, 2021. "A Possible Outbreak by Serratia marcescens : Genetic Relatedness between Clinical and Environmental Strains," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-9, September.
    4. Anna Garus-Pakowska & Mariusz Górajski, 2019. "Behaviors and Attitudes of Polish Health Care Workers with Respect to the Hazards from Blood-Borne Pathogens: A Questionnaire-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, March.
    5. Marta Wałaszek & Małgorzata Kołpa & Zdzisław Wolak & Anna Różańska & Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach, 2018. "Patient as a Partner in Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Jerzy Rosiński & Anna Różańska & Andrzej Jarynowski & Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach & Polish Society of Hospital Infections Team, 2019. "Factors Shaping Attitudes of Medical Staff towards Acceptance of the Standard Precautions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-10, March.
    7. María Gázquez-López & Encarnación Martínez-García & Adelina Martín-Salvador & María Adelaida Álvarez-Serrano & Inmaculada García-García & Rafael A. Caparros-Gonzalez & María Ángeles Pérez-Morente, 2021. "Posters as a Tool to Improve Hand Hygiene among Health Science Students: Case—Control Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-11, October.
    8. David J. Williams & Patrick A. D. Grimont & Adrián Cazares & Francine Grimont & Elisabeth Ageron & Kerry A. Pettigrew & Daniel Cazares & Elisabeth Njamkepo & François-Xavier Weill & Eva Heinz & Matthe, 2022. "The genus Serratia revisited by genomics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Małgorzata Kołpa & Marta Wałaszek & Anna Różańska & Zdzisław Wolak & Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach, 2018. "Hospital-Wide Surveillance of Healthcare-Associated Infections as a Source of Information about Specific Hospital Needs. A 5-Year Observation in a Multiprofile Provincial Hospital in the South of Pola," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-10, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2590-:d:510902. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.