title: A return to the basics; nurses' practices and knowledge about interventional patient hygiene in critical care units.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Nursing profession is struggling to return to basic nursing care to maintain patients' safety. "Interventional patient hygiene" (IPH) is a measurement model for reducing the bioburden of both the patient and health care worker, and its components are hand hygiene, oral care, skin care/antisepsis, and catheter site care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the level of nurses' practice and knowledge about interventional patient hygiene and identify barriers for implementing interventional patient hygiene in critical care units.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive research design was used and three tools were applied in this study: "The Interventional Patient Hygiene Observational Checklist", "The Interventional Patient Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire" and "The Barriers for Implementing Interventional Patient Hygiene in Critical Care Units".
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean percentage nurses' knowledge score is higher than the mean percentage practice score in all items (hand hygiene (71.28±25.46, compared with 46.15±17.87), oral care (100.0±0.0, compared with 25.32±24.25), catheter care (75.76±9.40, compared with 8.97±24.14) and skin care (47.80±6.79, compared with 26.28±16.57). Barriers for implementing hand hygiene are workload (71.79%), insufficient resources (61.53%), and lack of knowledge (10.25%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The mean percentage IPH knowledge score is higher than the mean percentage IPH practice score of all IPH items. Barriers for implementing IPH include workload, insufficient resources, and lack of knowledge/training.
authors.affiliation: Professor of Critical Care and Emergency Nursing, Critical Care and Emergency Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Azza H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: El-Soussi
authors.affiliation: Associate professor of Critical Care and Emergency Nursing, Critical Care and Emergency Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. Electronic address: hayamasfour2002@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hayam I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Asfour
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057189:Checklist; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D064648:Critical Care Nursing / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004534:Egypt; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene / Q000592:standards*; D017053:Infection Control / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: Basic nursing care; Critical care units; Interventional patient hygiene; Nurses’ knowledge; Nurses’ practices