Abstract:
Every year, the incidence of nosocomial infection in Arifin Achmad general hospital is increases
significantly. This kind of infection could be transmitted from the patient to visitor or from visitor
to the patients. One of the way to decrease nosocomial transmission is through increasing visitor
handwashing behavior. The aim of this study is to identify the correlation between visitor
knowledge about handwashing with visitor handwashing habits. This study is correlational design
with total sampling method. The sample are 64 visitors from medical ward Arifin Ahmad general
hospital. Data obtained from questionnaires as research instruments. The results of this study show
that 84,4% visitors have high knowledge about handwashing procedure and 54,6% visitors can
practice handwashing properly. Fisher test show p value 1.00 which means there is no correlation
between visitor knowledge with hand washing behavior in order to prevent nosocomial infection.
Based on this study, it is need to re-asses another factor that influence nosocomial infection. And
the nurse need to socialize proper handwashing procedure to visitors through health education
urgently and increase the discipline of the visitor to do right handwashing procedure.
