Uzma Khursheed, Muhammad Hussain, Syed Amir Gilani.
Evaluation of Nurses Competency about Surgical Hand Scrubbing.
Pak J Neuro Surg Jan ;24(2):201-5.

Objective:  Hands play a significant role in organism transmission. Poor hand hygiene practices in health care settings lead to nosocomial infection. Aseptic practice is the cornerstone of current surgery, thus rigid adherence to prescribed sterile techniques in the operating room is essential.The objective of this study was to evaluate nurses’ competencies regarding surgical hand scrubbing. Material and Methods: Cross sectional observational design was used. The study was conducted in operating rooms in a tertiary care hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.This setting contains total seven operating rooms with 250 registered nurses. Sample size calculated through Slovin’s formula. Sample size was 154. Convenient sampling technique was used. An adopted checklist was used for observing the nurses’ practices of hand scrubbing. Data was analyzed in Statistical Software of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Results:  Majority of nurses (72.7%) were between 21-30 years age group. Only 38.3% participants wore a face mask and surgical cap correctly and 61.7% did not wear correctly. Majority participants, 76% had short nails.All participants (100%) removed nail polish, artificial nails, and jewelry before scrubbing. Majority of participants applied a proper amount of Povidone iodine. Conclusion:  Operational hand scrub is very vital component of operative procedure. Results of this study showed inadequate practices of nurses in the operating room, which was overall 77%. There is a need to improve nurses’ practices so, periodically audit, manager supervision and feedback, workshops should be organized.

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