Background: The purpose of the study was to find out if hand hygiene was being
done according to World Health Organization hand hygiene Guideline. It was hoped
that the study would benefit all health care workers through making
recommendations aimed at improving hand hygiene compliance.
Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess hand hygiene practices among
healthcare workers in Nyangabgwe Hospital, Francistown, Botswana
Methods: Quantitative, Cross-sectional study, using a self-administered
Questionnaire to collect data on 280 participants. The questionnaire consisted of
three (3) sections: socio-demographic profile; attitudes of HCWs and practice of
healthcare on hand hygiene. For attitude questions Three (3) point Likert scale was
used. The sampled Healthcare workers were stratified. The results were analysed
using SPSS version 24.0. The descriptive statistical method was used to analyse
frequencies, correlations and means. The chi-squared was used to analyse cross
tabulation between variables and association with significance level at (p < = 0.05).
Results: The results shows that 260 participants aged between 20- 60years
responded to the questionnaire. The majority of participants had good knowledge of
hand hygiene and younger participants practiced hand hygiene more than older ones
(p<.05). Barriers to hand hygiene were significant and included lack of time, negative
attitude, but not lack of knowledge.
Conclusion: The study highlighted the practices of hand hygiene among health care
workers and the status of hand hygiene resources in the hospital which have a
negative impact on hand hygiene practices demonstrated that compliance with hand
hygiene compliance among health care workers remains unacceptably low, despite
xiv
the irrefutable scientific evidence that hands are the most common vehicle for
transmission of pathogens.