Impact of hand washing training on pharmacy students; a quasi-experimental study.

Background: Globally, poor hand washing practiceshave led to a remarkable increase in the rate ofinfection and spread of infectious diseases. Hands arethe main route of germ transmission during medicalmanagement. Hence, hand washing is an effectivemeasure to prevent the transmission of infectiousdiseases in healthcare. Objective: The study assessed the impact of handwashing training on pharmacy students’ knowledgeof hand washing. Methods: The study employed quasi-experimentalstudy design. Pre-test data collection was carried outwith a structured questionnaire to assess thestudent’s knowledge of hand washing technique atbaseline. This was followed by an educationalworkshop on proper hand washing technique andpost-test data collection using the samequestionnaire. All the students (299) who gave theirinformed consent participated in the study. Meanscore of individual response was computed for thedifferent sections of the questionnaire. Data analysiswas performed using SPSS version 22 computersoftware. Statistical analysis was done using Paired ttest.A value of p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: Out of the 299 students that indicatedwillingness to participate in the study, only 284completed the post-test questionnaire. The baselineresults revealed that majority of the respondentshave good general knowledge on proper handwashing technique based on cutoff value of >4.However, the educational workshop had significantimpact on the students’ hand washing technique inall the three domains assessed with p-values of 0.000for each domain. Conclusion: This study suggests that handwashingtraining had a positive impact on the students’handwashing knowledge