Hand hygiene practices among Jordanian nurses in Amman

BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene is a simple and effective practice that helps to reduce the spread of hospital-acquired infections. However, health care professionals' adherence to hand hygiene guidelines is low. The purpose of this study is to evaluate hand hygiene practices among Jordanian nurses working in hospitals. METHODOLOGY: The standardized version of the World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire was given to Jordanian nurses from two hospitals in Amman. RESULT: The response rate was 76 percent, with 173 nurses contacted to enroll 226 participants. According to the study, 65.5 percent (113) of the participants have a good practice hand hygiene, while 11 percent (19) practiced poor hand hygiene. The percentage of female participants who practiced good hand hygiene was found to be significantly higher (70 percent) than the percentage of male participants (30 percent). CONCLUSION: To improve compliance with hand hygiene practices, male nurses and nurses working in the department of internal medicine and pediatrics need in-service educational intervention. Posters and other visual aids emphasizing the importance of hand hygiene should be displayed in all departments to raise awareness of the importance of hand hygiene among nurses.