Nwaokenye, Jude, Sulaiman, Lakoh and Morgan, Julia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6218-7593 (2020) Perceptions of Nigerian healthcare workers towards hand hygiene: a qualitative study. Pan African Medical Journal, 36:204. ISSN 1937-8688 (doi:10.11604/pamj.2020.36.204.19869)

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Abstract

Introduction: hand hygiene (HH) is an effective measure to reduce healthcare-associated infections and the growing burden of antimicrobial resistance. There is a need to understand the perceptions of healthcare workers towards its practice and the use of alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR) to make recommendations to promote HH. Our study aimed to explore the perceptions of Nigerian healthcare workers towards HH and the use and availability of ABHR to suggest potential interventions to improve its practice as qualitative evidence in this field is limited in Nigeria.

Methods: a qualitative study design was utilized to understand the perceptions of healthcare workers towards HH and the use of ABHR at Adeoyo Maternity Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nineteen healthcare workers who were interviewed. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data generated.

Results: five themes emerged including discrepancies in what constitutes HH practice as participants, motivation for HH practice, a good knowledge of timing as regards practice, barriers to good practice and evidence of poor practice.

Conclusion: while many healthcare workers know about HH and self-reported compliance towards it seems to be high, knowledge gaps, lack of resources, absence of regulations and poor working conditions were impediments to the successful implementation of HH practices. We recommend that hospitals institute well-articulated HH regulations, continuous education and training of healthcare workers. Hospitals should also ensure adequate provision of resources for hand hygiene and institute a continuous monitoring and feedback program to evaluate compliance with regulations.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Nigeria, hand-washing, qualitative
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2021 14:02
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/29506

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