Background: Workplace or occupational stress are harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when there is anapparent mismatch between what doctors are trained for and what they are required to do. Data on workplace stress experienced by medicaleducators is scarce. Objective: To asses stress in medical educators and its job related predictors. Setting:Lahore Medical & Dental College(LMDC), Lahore and its affiliated Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital (GTTH). Period: Three months, between January and March2009.Methods:A cross sectional survey was conducted. A structured questionnaire for background information and Workplace Stress Scale(WSS) were the data collection tools to survey 110 medical educators. Data was recorded and analyzed in SPSS 16. Chi Square test with p ≤0.05 as the cut- off point was applied for statistical significance. Results: Stress was present in 94% of respondents, with 21% having severestress. Age had statistically significant bearing on stress status (p=0.02), severity of stress (p=0.04), designation (p= <0.001) and monthlyearnings (p= <0.001). Main workplace stressors included inadequate control (96%), difficulty in expressing opinions (70%), unsafe workingconditions (66%), work overload and un-realistic deadlines (62%) and job pressures interfering with life (59%). Workplace motivators includedfull utilization of skills and ability for 97% (p=<0.001) and recognition or reward for good performance for 84% (p=0.06). Conclusions: Medicaleducators at LMDC, especially at junior level, reported high levels of both frequency and intensity of stress which need to be controlled.Autonomy and reward for good performance were motivational for our respondents.

Background: WHO Guidelines recommends ‘‘My five moments for hand hygiene” for prevention of HCAI. Objective: Toassess the knowledge and practices of medical students about HCAI and hand hygiene. Setting: Lahore Medical & Dental College(LMDC), Lahore. Period: Four weeks, in January and February, 2012. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted usingWHO’s “Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire”, among MBBS students from 3rd to final years, 2012. Data was entered and cleaned inSPSS 19 and presented in tables and graphs. Descriptive statistics was used in the forms of numbers and percentages. Results: Among227 respondents, 63% were female, 67% were 20 to 22 years old, 38% were from 3rd year, 40% from 4th year and 22% from final year,61% never received hand hygiene training and 67% never used hand rubs. Few students named unclean hands as main route (42%) andsource of HCAI (21%). Hand hygiene was preferred before touching patients (76%) and after body fluid exposure (70%). It was perceivedto be rapid (63%), effective (66%), cause of skin dryness (57%) and it was supposed to be used concomitantly with hand washing (74%),before abdomen palpation (48%), giving injection (31%), after removing gloves (22%) and making patient’s bed (31%). Damaged skin(92%), artificial fingernails (78%) and jewelry (53%) were perceived to increase hand contamination. Conclusions: There were seriousgaps in knowledge of proper hand cleaning techniques and their importance in prevention of health HCAI. Hand hygiene, must be part ofcurriculum and training of all health care providers.