Personal protective equipment and hand hygiene status in healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Mashhad university hospitals

Introduction: Health- care workers (HCWs) are in great danger of infection with COVID-19. They can transmit virus to coworkers and also their patients. Proper hand hygiene(HH) and correct usage of personal protective equipment (PPE) could prevent healthcare associated infections including COVID-19. Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate correct usage of PPE and compliance of hand hygiene among HCWs before and after touching patients. Methods: During a 6 months period from June till November2020,we observed HCWs in two university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. Standard questionnaire using WHO compliance check list for HH and WHO check list for PPE were filled by infection control nurses. Data were analyzed using SPSS software 2016. Results: Seventy-one HCWs in medical and ICU wards of two university hospitals entered our study. There were 21 men and 50 women, most of them were nurses 62(87.3%). Thirty HCWs (42.3%) from ICU wards and 37(52.1%) from medical wards and 4 (5.6%) from surgical ward entered our research. Thirty-two (45.1%) 0f them washed their hands with alcohol -based hand rub correctly. The HH compliance rate was 45.1% before touching patients and 67.6% after touching patients.Most HCWs in our study 69(97.2%) wore masks the right way.Wearing personal protective kit in a proper method was done in 42(59.2%) of them and taking off only in 34(47.9%) of HCWs.Hand hygiene compliance rate before touching patients was higher in medical wards compared to ICU and surgical wards. p value = 0.05. Conclusion: Frequent education and training of HCWs is necessary for the standard of care.