Assessment of Nurses, Compliance with Hand Hygiene Guidelines in Public Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study from Mardan Medical Complex, Pakistan

Background

Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of infection prevention and control (IPC) in healthcare settings and plays a critical role in reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Despite well-established international and national guidelines, compliance among nurses remains inconsistent, particularly in resource-constrained public sector hospitals of low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to assess nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported compliance with hand hygiene guidelines, and to identify the barriers to compliance and its demographic correlates in a public tertiary care hospital.