Effectiveness of Hygienic Hand Washing Training on Hand Washing Practices and Knowledge: A Nonrandomized Quasi-Experimental Design.

Nurses undertake important responsibilities in patient care and the prevention of hospital-acquired infections. However, adherence to hand hygiene practices among nurses has been reported to be low. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of hygienic hand washing training on hand washing practices and knowledge. The study design was a nonrandomized, quasi-experimental study, with pretest-posttest for one group. Pre- and postobservations were also conducted using an observation form on any 5 workdays to evaluate the effectiveness of hygienic hand washing training on hand washing practices. The study was conducted with 63 nurses working at a hospital in Istanbul. Hand Hygiene Knowledge Form scores after hygienic hand washing training were higher than the pretraining scores. The number of the nurses' hand hygiene actions after hand hygiene training increased significantly compared with that before training. The results indicate that training in proper hand washing techniques and hygienic hand washing practices positively affects the knowledge level of nurses and their hand washing behavior. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2018;49(8):360-371.