Abstract

Hand washing can be regarded as one of the most effective and important hygiene promotion programmes for community as well as hospital based settings. A cross sectional survey was carried out at Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, over 03 months from September to November 2012. The survey was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and self–reported hand washing practice among healthcare staff (nurses) working in family OPD and ward. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS 16. Descriptive statistics was used in the form of numbers and percentages. It was believed by 95% of staff that handwashing can reduce infection rates in hospitals. Among the respondents, 24.2% expressed strong dissent on washing hands only with water, however, 22.5% considered it enough. Patients never (50%), sometimes (21.7%), seldom (19.2%), often (9.2%) asked health care staff about hand washing. Staff reported their practice of hand washing before touching patients as often (32.5%), sometimes (37.5%), seldom (20.8%) and never (9.2%).