Hand washing, a vital parameter

Hand hygiene is one of the most important elements of infection control. On observation of Nurses in four wards in a tertiary care hospital for a period of 3 weeks, it was found that only 35 out of 50 washed their hands. Among those 35, only 5 (14.3%) washed hands by following all steps of hand washing and 30 (85.7%) did not follow. Proper hand hygiene is the single most important factor that can have the most influence on the prevention of health care associated infection.