Good Practices, Hand Hygiene and Personal Protective Equipment in Health Care Providers

Nosocomial infections are associated with the health care units, and are one of the main causes of high morbidity and mortality. Then comes a rising tide of awareness of the risks arising from the transmission of pathogens, resulting on a joint effort by professionals and health organizations for its eradication. Hand hygiene emerges as one of the most effective tools to prevent those infections, mainly when this practice is associated with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the good practices of the health care providers in the central region of Portugal. In particular, evaluating the knowledge about good practices, hand hygiene and PPE use. As evaluation tool we resorted to a questionnaire. The analysed sample was composed by 45 health care professionals, comprising doctors and nurses. The results show that there's no significant differences between the compartmental behaviour adopted by doctors and nurses. Additionally the individuals with lower professional experience [0 to 10 years[shown better practices with mean values of 7.18, compared with 6.30 of the other groups (p=0,036). Statistically differences are found in the result of professional experience and training received. The professionals who have been trained recently present best practices. So the implementation of a training program on good practice and use of PPE, with regular mandatory update, would be an important added value to the fight against nosocomial infections.