School of Medicine

Nosocomial infections are common and negatively impact patient care. Despite overwhelming evidence showing diligent hand hygiene practice as a reliable method of reducing nosocomial infection rate, compliance is low among healthcare workers at academic hospitals. Previous studies have indicated a inverse relationship between hand hygiene compliance and level of medical training—medical students are more compliant with hand hygiene practice than resident physicians, who are more complaint than attending physicians. It remains unclear where this decrease in hand hygiene compliance occurs in medical training. While most research focus has been on residency training, this project aims to explore whether hand hygiene laxity begins in medical school.