Background: Transmission of bacteria commonly occurs from wet skin than from dry skin. Thus,
nurses and midwives are considered front-line conquerors who need to wash their hands too often,
for infection prevention and control. This study aims to compare the effect of tissue paper versus air
dryer for drying hands on skin inhabited bacteria in obstetrical wards. Study design: Comparative
study was used between the two method of drying hand. The number and types of bacteria covering
the nurses' hands were determined before and after hand hygiene using the two drying techniques
for all nurses on duty in the ante, intra, and post-natal wards. Sampling: A purposive sample of all
nurses (30) who are working in the (ante, intra, and postnatal) maternity wards of El-Nada maternity
hospital, Egypt was recruited. Tools: Three tools were used for data collection. Tool I was
occupational and demographic questionnaire. Tool II an observational checklist to assess the way
and the time of drying hand used in each group. Tool III: Microbiological assessment tool to assess
and compare pathogenic bacteria in each group. Results: Using air dryers for at least 45 seconds
resulted to fewer transient and resident bacteria remained on the skin (P > 0.001) compared with
those found after drying hand using tissue paper. Conclusion and Recommendations: Hands dried
by air dryer harbors fewer viable bacteria than the hands dried with tissue paper. Air dryers are
recommended to reduce resident and transient hand bacteria.