Educability in hand hygiene: comparing knowledge and attitude of medical students and specialist assistant after short training course

Background: Hand hygiene (HH) is assumed the most important action to reduce the healthcare associated infections. The main objective of this study was evaluating the effectiveness of an educational program among knowledge and attitude of medical students at different levels about HH at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.Method: Two groups of medical students including medical students who just passed the physiopathology course and residents of different specialties at the beginning of their course participated in this study in 2017. The Persian version of WHO questionnaire on HH knowledge and attitude were completed by each individual before, immediately and three months after attending an educational workshop. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.Results: A total of 277 medical students entered to the study and about 71% completed the study. The mean knowledge level of the residents was significantly higher than the externs at the beginning of the study (p 0.0001). There was a significant difference between pre-test and the immediate post-test scores on HH knowledge and attitude of all the attendants (P 0.0001). The average knowledge level of specialist assistants was significantly higher than that of medical students immediately after training and also over time. (P 0.0001)Conclusion: Based on the research results, the level of knowledge and attitude of the participants was higher after educational workshop. In addition, specialty assistants had higher knowledge level after the workshop compared to medical students. It is necessary to plan frequent training courses to consolidate knowledge of HH.