Comparison of nursing and medical students' hand hygiene beliefs, hand hygiene practices and compliance with isolation measures

Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the compliance of nursing department and medical faculty students with hand hygiene beliefs, hand hygiene practices and isolation measures, and to shed light on the question of the extent to which this awareness can be gained during their education. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 217 students from the 2.3 and 4 classes of the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Manisa Celal Bayar University and 94 students from the 4 and 6 classes of the Faculty of Medicine. The data were collected by Student Identification Form, Hand Hygiene Belief Scale, Hand Hygiene Practices Inventory and with Compliance with Isolation Measures Scale. In the statistical analysis of the data, the number percentage distribution was used to define demographic characteristics, and Kolmogorov Siminov test (p = 0.000) Mann Whitney U test and Kruskall Wallis test were used for the evaluation of the relationship between demographic characteristics and scale mean scores. Results: The mean age of the students who participated in the study was 21.85 ± 1.62 (18-26) and the majority of them were women (66.2%). 89.4% of the students think that isolation measures are necessary to prevent hospital infections and 99% think that hand washing habits are effective in preventing hospital infections. Conclusion: It has been determined that isolation compliance and hand hygiene of students is high level in preventing hospital infections. In both departments, compliance of female students to isolation measures was found to be higher than male students. Age does not affect compliance with insulation measures. As nursing students' level of knowledge about hospital infections increases, their compliance with hand hygiene increases. Keywords: Students-nursing, students-medical, hand disinfection, patient isolation