Özet:

While hand hygiene is a critical component of nursing training, it is the most effective and simplest method of infection control known in preventing the infection of microorganisms that cause diseases and in reducing the frequency of infection caused by health staff. In this study, the aim was to identify the beliefs and practices of nursing students in handhygiene and some factors affecting them, to reveal the areas that should be focused on handhygiene teaching in basic nursing education. This study in the identificative and cutting-edge type was conducted with 801 nursing students from 15 December 2019 to 15 February 2020. The data was collected with the Student Information Form, Handhygiene Application Inventory and Handhygiene Faith Scale. According to the findings; the student’s self-references based on handhygiene application inventory score average was 65.26±5.29, and the handhygiene faith scale score average was 86.01±9.08. While students' hands-on hygiene application inventory scores meanly vary by gender (p=0.006), hands-on hygiene faith scale scores meanly vary by gender and academic year (respectively p<0.001; p=0.001). There was a significant correlation in the negative direction between the number of days in which students entered the clinical practice and the average score of the Handhygiene Faith Scale (r= -0.120; p<0.001). It was found that nursing students have a positive belief in hand hygiene and that hand hygiene practices based on their self-references are at a good level.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Özet:

Hand hygiene is the simplest infection control method known to prevent the transmission of pathogens and reduce the incidence of infections due to healthcare staff as well as is a critical component of nursing education. In this study, it was aimed to determine the beliefs and practices of nursing students towards hand hygiene and to reveal some factors affecting them, to reveal the areas that should focus on teaching hand hygiene in basic nursing education. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 801 nursing students between 15 December 2019 and 15 February 2020. Data were collected with Student Information Form, Hand Hygiene Practice Inventory and Hand Hygiene Belief Scale. It was found that 74.3% of the nursing students were female and 38% were senior students. It was determined that the average Hand Hygiene Practice Inventory score based on the self-reports of the students was 65.26±5.29, and the average Hand Hygiene Belief Scale score was 86.01±9.08. While the mean scores of the students’ Hand Hygiene Practice Inventory showed a significant difference regarding gender (p= 0.006), the Hand Hygiene Belief Scale scores of nursing students differed significantly in terms of gender and year of education (respectively p<0.001; p= 0.001). There was a significant negative correlation between the number of days of clinical practice and the average Hand Hygiene Belief Scale score (p= -0.120; p<0.001). It was found that nursing students had positive beliefs towards hand hygiene and hand hygiene practices based on self-reports were good.