Hand hygiene practice among healthcare workers at the surgical orthopedic wards of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching And Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Hand hygiene practice is the most-simple and cost-effective way to prevent Hospital Acquired Infections. However, limited audit exists on the adherence to hand hygiene practice by healthcare workers in surgical orthopedic wards of a referral hospital in Western Kenya.

Objective: evaluate adherence level to hand hygiene practice in the surgical orthopedic wards at a referral hospital.

Design: descriptive cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Surgical orthopedic wards in Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Subjects: 31 healthcare workers employed at the hospital.

Results: Among 7 doctors and 24 nurses, 39% agreed there was constant running water in the wards, 45.2% agreed there was constant supply of hand wash soap and 16% agreed there was evaluation and provision of feedback of hand hygiene practice. Only 12.9% agreed on the availability of hand sanitizer in and out of the rooms. Twenty six percent and 13% reported stock out of sanitizers and occasional dry taps respectively. However, 22.6 % agreed of washing hands before and after attending to a patient. Notably, 61% reported taking care of many patients as a barrier to hand hygiene practice. Doctors and nurses take care of twice and thrice respectively as many patients as recommended by World Health Organization. Water for hand wash was more available than hand sanitizer (P=0.006).

Conclusion: Several challenges for effective adherence to hand hygiene practice exist and more emphasis needs to be put on staffing, strengthening infection control manuals and exploring a complementary use of soaps and sanitizers for sustainability in poor resource settings.