DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i06.036

Pages: 2334-2339

Although hand hygiene is a very simple procedure; a review on literatures suggested that the compliance rates by healthcare workers with recommended hand hygiene procedures ranged from 5% to 89% with an average compliance to be below 50%. The main objective is to assess the knowledge of undergraduate medical students with regard to hand washing. A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at a teaching hospital of Kolkata from May 2015- July 2015 among 191 4th and 6th semester undergraduate students using WHO‟s hand hygiene questionnaire for health care workers. The Statistical analysis was by Microsoft office excel 2010, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS 16 & Epiinfo 6.04d. Knowledge on hand hygiene was moderate among 76% of the total study population. Only 8% of participants had good knowledge and rest 16% had poor knowledge regarding hand hygiene. In conclusion emphasis on hand hygiene in the undergraduate curriculum is need of the hour.