title: Factors influencing stethoscope cleanliness among clinical medical students.
abstract: This study aims to identify current stethoscope hygiene habits and attitudes in a UK medical school setting. Students completed a questionnaire using Likert-scale questions and free-text answers. A total of 308 questionnaires were completed from a potential 750 students (41%); 22.4% of respondents had never cleaned their stethoscope and only 3.9% cleaned their stethoscope after every patient. Significant correlations were identified between cleaning frequency and: others acting as role models (P = 0.001), students having confidence in how to clean stethoscopes (P = 0.001), and students thinking cleaning was important (P = 0.01), thereby highlighting inadequate education and role models as potential problems.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. edinburghmedic@googlemail.com
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hryhorskyj
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skinner
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019023:Stethoscopes / Q000382:microbiology*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult