Introduction: Hand washing is now regarded as one of the most important element of infection control activities. This is because enough scientific evidence supports the observation that if properly implemented, hand washing alone can significantly reduce the risk of cross-transmission of infection in healthcare facilities. Hand hygiene should start from our health professionals; Nurses& Doctors are health experts and are therefore expected to portray a good example to the other people. Objectives: The study was conducted to assess the hand washing practices and to compare the hand washing practices between the different categories of health care professionals. Material and Methods: Quantitative approach with Non-experimental, Uni-variant descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Using Non probability, convenient sampling technique, 100 health care professionals were enrolled for the study. Data collection technique used for the study was observational technique and among the observational method, the researcher selected non-participatory observational technique. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Out of total 100 health care professionals 63%nurses and 37% doctors were observed as during hand washing. In different pediatric units, among 38% health care professionals, there were 27% nurses and 11% doctors observed in the pediatric ward, among 19% health care professionals, 14% nurses and 07% doctors were observed in the P.I.C.U and majority i.e. among 43% health care professionals 24% nurses and 19% doctors were observed in the N.I.C.U. There were only 09% out of 100 health care professionals followed all the 13 steps of hand washing practices, majority i.e. 74% of health care professionals followed the > 7-12 steps of hand washing practices and the17% of health care professionals followed <7 steps. The findings shows that most of the healthcare professionals were not doing hand washing properly, which can result in transferring of infectious diseases more and more and thus increase the rate of hospital acquired infection. Conclusion: There are less percentage of health care professionals who are doing proper hand washing practices. This means that the health care professionals are responsible for nosocomial infection. Also there is no difference in the compliance of hand washing practices among health care professionals.
