Effectiveness of a Multi-Component Educational Intervention on Knowledge and Compliance with Hand Hygiene among Nurses in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Hospital acquired infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal intensive care units. Appropriate hand hygiene is singled out as the most important measure in preventing these infections.

The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a multi component educational intervention on the knowledge and compliance with hand hygiene guidelines among nurses working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

The data was collected from 60 nurses working in 3 level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units of selected private hospitals in Kerala. A pre experimental pre-test post-test design was adopted for the study. The data collection tool consisted of a knowledge questionnaire and an observation checklist to assess the hand hygiene compliance, developed based on WHO hand hygiene guidelines.

Before the implementation of educational intervention, majority, (56.66%) had only moderate knowledge on hand hygiene and none of them had good level of knowledge. With regard to compliance with hand hygiene guidelines, majority, (65%) demonstrated poor compliance while none of them showed good compliance. There was a statistically significant improvement in the nurse's level of knowledge and compliance with hand hygiene guidelines after the completion of the multi-component educational intervention (P<0.001).

Implementation of multi-component educational program with continues monitoring and performance feedback leading to a sustained high level of appropriate hand hygiene practices among nursing personnel.