Knowledge, attitude and hand hygiene practices

Hand hygiene is a common term that is applicable to hand washing, antiseptic hand rub, antiseptic hand wash or surgical hand antisepsis. Hand hygiene helps in preventing cross-transmission of microorganism and helps in reducing the prevalence of health care associated infections and an optimal hand hygiene behavior is considered as the cornerstone for preventing health care associated infections. Nurses comprise the largest percentage of health care workers and they are appraised as the ¿nucleus of the healthcare system¿, their compliance with hand washing seems to be crucial in preventing the transmission of diseases among the patients as they spend more time with patients compared to other healthcare workers.