Adherence of Umm Al-Qura University Dental Students to Infection Control Guidelines: A Four Year – Auditing Report

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Infection control auditing is an objective quality improvement process that evaluates current practice against already available standards and guidelines.
 AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the adherence of Umm Al-Qura University dental students to infection control guidelines by 4 years’ clinical auditing.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study of audit checklists (n = 40725) at Dental Teaching Hospital, Umm Al-Qura University, throughout 4 academic years (2015–2018) was performed. Checklists item, total category, and overall adherence percentages were calculated based on recorded observations. The difference in adherence and violations was assessed using generalized estimating equations with the identity logit and an autoregressive correlation matrix.
 RESULTS: Overall adherence to all checklist categories was high except for 10–45% got out of the cubicle with used gloves and 15–60% not probably wore mask outside the cubicle. Overall violations among females were highly statistically significant lower than males (OR: 0.926, p < 0.01) and 4th grade were statistically significant lower than among 6th grade (OR: 0.932, p < 0.05) while no statistically significant difference in overall violation among 5th grade in comparison to 6th grade. However, along the 4 years of the study, statistically significant difference in overall violations was observed.
 CONCLUSION: Adherence of Umm Al-Qura University dental students to infection control guidelines in the past 4 years remained consistently high except for attitude in the clinic station outside the cubicle which improved along study years. Our results highlight the importance of continuous monitoring through clinical audits together with educational programs and counseling with students violating infection control policies to make corrective actions.