Hand Hygiene Training and Its Impact on the Knowledge of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Kosovo

BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene (HH) performing is a must in health care settings because it affects the human lives. Health Care Workers (HCW) must be aware and be trained continuously as regards hand hygiene.

AIM: The aim of this article was to evaluate and compare the knowledge before and after an educational training of undergraduate nursing students at an educational institution in Pristine, Kosovo.

METHODS: A pre- post survey was conducted in February 2016 at an educational institution in Pristine, Kosovo. The World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire for hand hygiene knowledge of Health Care Workers (HCW) was used to collect the data.

RESULTS: From a total of 100 students, only 13 (13 %) were men and 87 (87%) were women. Their ages ranged between 18-23 years old. Only 55 (55 %) had poor knowledge level, 42 (42%) had moderate knowledge level and only 3 (3%) had good knowledge about HH practices before the training and after the training only 1 (1%) participant was found with poor knowledge, 61 (61%) moderate knowledge and 38 (38 %) good knowledge. The training had a significant impact on the acquisition of HH’ knowledge. This was shown by the significant difference between the total points before and after the training (p <0.001).

CONCLUCION: The training should be done consistently and be part of the nursing school curriculum, maintaining a satisfactory level of knowledge about hand hygiene as these students in a near future will face with Hand Hygiene (HH) issues in their daily clinical work.