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Appropriate hand-washing practice with an adequate level of frequency is an essential skill for leading healthy lives. A cross-sectional, school study was conducted over a period of 3 months (October-December, 2016). The participants were students from grade 1 to grade 12, randomly chosen from 14 public schools in Jordan. Complete data regarding their hand-washing habits was obtained. The Pearson chi-square test was computed. Odds ratio was calculated with a 95% confidence interval to show the effect size and the strength of relationship between variables. The findings showed that the majority of the students (97.5%) washed their hands with water, and nearly 70% of them used soap. Furthermore, the majority washed their hands after using the toilet (86.7%) and after touching rubbish (84.4%). Reasons for not washing their hands from the students' perspective included: ‘no need’ (70.8%) and ‘the hand-washing facilities were not clean’ (62.3%). The findings revealed that a low percentage of school students ignored hand-washing after different critical situations, this figure decreased with age. However, the practice should be improved further. Health promotion programmes should be implemented for students and their families in the community or in school settings.

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Oral care is an important feature of nursing; it is known that oropharynx is considered the main reservoir of bacterial colonization, so the removal of oral infection is a major duty of all health care providers, particularly nurses. We performed this study to explore endotracheal tube and oral care practices for mechanically ventilated patients of Jordanian intensive care nurses, and to study Jordanian intensive care nurses’ practices during, prior to, and post endotracheal tube and oral care for mechanically ventilated patients. Endotracheal tube and oral care of Jordanian intensive care nurses for mechanically ventilated patients was compared with recommendations for endotracheal tube and oral care of American Association of Critical Care Nurses and guidelines of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Non- participant structured observational design was conducted using a 24 -item structured observational schedule. The findings show that nurses different in their oral care practices; did not follow American Association of Critical Care Nurses recommendations; and therefore delivered lower-quality oral care than predictable. Important inconsistencies were observed in the nurses’ hyperoxygenation, respiratory assessment techniques and infection control practices.

Personal hygiene among children is considered as the best tool to improve community strategies and intervention practices to tackle the many communicable and infectious diseases. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out over 3 weeks in November 2014. The participants were school children in grades 1 to 6 (6–12-year-olds). A questionnaire was used to collect information about demographic characteristics, and then the children were interviewed and inspected regarding their general hygiene, including the state of their uniform or clothes, bathing, oral care, hand washing before and after eating, hand washing after use of toilet, covering one's mouth when sneezing and coughing, appropriate disposal of solid tissue and unkempt hair or nails. Data were analysed using the SPSS programme version 14. Descriptive distribution statistics and the Pearson chi-square test were computed. The prevalence of cleanliness and neatness among school children was 76.7%. Furthermore, these improved with age. Poor oral hygiene (47.6%) and not washing hands after eating (47.1%) followed by unkempt hair (44.0%) were the main types of poor personal hygiene. Health promotion programmes and health education lectures should be implemented for children and their families. School nurses, school staff and parents also have an important role in teaching the children how to practice good personal hygiene.