Compliance To Hand Hygiene Standards Amongst Health Care Providers In Selected Public Hospitals In Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Hand hygiene is a simple act of hand cleansing and the most effective measure of decreasing healthcare-associated infections among the health care workers. The infections not only lengthen the hospitalization period but also increase financial burden to individual, family and a country at large for example in Europe approximately €13–24 billion is spent annually. Hand hygiene compliance has remained unacceptably as low as 40% worldwide with the developing countries reporting a lower percentage. The broad objective of this study was to determine the level of compliance with hand hygiene standards amongst the health care providers in selected public hospitals in Uasin Gishu County. The study used the cross-sectional study design. The lower level health facilities were selected randomly while higher level health facilities were selected purposively. Sample size determination was done using Fisher’s (1999) formula and Cochran’s correction formula was used due to the population of health workers being below 10,000. A total of 301 sample size was arrived at and additional ten percent of the 301 sample size was included to accommodate for attrition hence having a total sample size of 331 respondents. The Simple random sampling technique was used to identify the 331 health care providers taking into consideration the use of probability proportionate to sample size technique in obtaining the number of health care providers from each health facility. The Data collection instruments included a self-administered questionnaire and observational checklist. Quantitative Data analysis was carried out by utilizing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20. The findings revealed a compliance rate of 49.8%. Pearson’s test of correlation revealed that the main determinants of compliance with hand hygiene standards were professional cadre (r=014; P=0.015), training (r=0.371; P=<0.01) level of education (r= 0.168; P=0.004), availability of clean running water (r=0.271; P=<0.01) and hand washing soap (r=0.168; P=0.003). The study recommends that the policy makers and health stakeholders need to come up with a policy that ensures that the health care workers adhere to hand hygiene standards and ensure adequate provision of hand hygiene facilities so as to enhance compliance with hand hygiene standards.