Nurses’ Knowledge Regarding Hand Hygiene and Its Individual and Organizational Predictors

Introduction: Based on recommendations from World Health Organization, hand hygiene is the most important way to control the hospital infections. Due to the critical role of nurses in patient care, they should have essential and updated information regarding hand hygiene. So this study aims at determining the knowledge of hand hygiene and its individual and organizational predictors among nurses in neonatal units. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in neonatal units in the hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The participants surveyed in this study were 150 nurses who were invited by census sampling method. A researcher prepared questionnaire that investigated the knowledge of participants about hand hygiene and was used after approving its validity and reliability. The quantitative analysis of this study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS version 13 by descriptive statistics and pearson correlation test, independent samples t-test, One-way ANOVA. For multivariable explanation of nurses’ knowledge based on independent variables multiple linear regressions was used. Results: Most of participants have an acceptable level of knowledge regarding hand hygiene. The highest score was for infection control domain and the lowest score was for definition of hand hygiene domain. Multivariable analysis showed that work experience and history of previous training were the most important predictors of participants’ knowledge about hand hygiene. Conclusion: It is recommended that infection control committees should revise their educational methods and give more emphasis on update guidelines regarding hand hygiene. Also, more experienced nurses should be employed in neonatal units

Comparing two methods of electronic and teacher-based education on nursing students’ level of knowledge in taking care of trauma patients

Objective: Trauma is a major health problem worldwide regardless of regional socioeconomic and healthcare status. As a leading cause of death, trauma results in severe socioeconomic damages, which could be highly prevented by optimal care. As nurses are the major professional groups involved in patient care, improvement of their knowledge and practical skill leads to more qualified healthcare staff. Nowadays, traditional methods of education cannot meet students’ needs and modern methods of training are recommended to be applied. This study, therefore, aimed to compare the effects of two methods of teaching (electronic education and teacher-based education) on students’ learning and the efficacy rate of each method on the knowledge of fourth year students of nursing and midwifery faculty in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this study, the participants were randomly assigned into 2 educational groups of electronic (experimental group) and teacher-based (control group) method. All participants took a pre-test. Then each group attended the same course in a different method. Finally, post-test was taken by the participants and data were analyzed. Results: A comparison of the mean knowledge score of both groups showed that electronic education was more effective than teacher-based education. Conclusion: The electronic training will result in more effective learning in comparison to teacher-based method and can be applied as an appropriate and efficient method of educatio