Assessment of Hygiene Practices Employed by Medical Students at the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil) during Clinical Service

ABSTRACT

Adherence to hygiene standards is an important aspect of health professionals’ clinical and hospital practice. In this study, we evaluated the behavior of 160 students completing a medical internship at the Faculty of Medicine of Bahia of the Federal University of Bahia, by means of a questionnaire containing 22 objective questions. Of the 160 participants in the survey, 76% assessed their own knowledge of hygiene standards as “excellent” or “good”; however only 50% performed hand hygiene before and after patient contact. Around 55% did not agree with the suggestion of creating a new specific curricular component on the theme. The demographic characteristics of the sample varied in gender in terms of other studies, with a prevalence of male students and an age range of 20-40. We observed divergent results regarding the students’ knowledge of the hygiene standards and their conduct thereof in medical practice. Several factors leading to the students’ failure to undertake aseptic practice are the fact that the theory of Hygiene and Biosafety is taught at a different time to its practice, as well as the lack of supervision, lack of supplies and materials and misconduct on the part of some health professionals.

Hand Disinfection; Asepsis; Cross Infection; Medical Education