Background:
Hospital infections are one of the major problems of contemporary medicine. They constitute a threat not only to patients, but also to health care professionals. About 20–40% of all hospital infections are cross-infections spread by the hands. The study aimed to assess the knowledge of nurses in surgical departments on hospital infections spread by the contact route in relation to education.

Material and Methods:
The study involved 100 randomly selected nurses employed in surgical departments in Warsaw and Lublin hospitals of different profiles. Group 1 comprised nurses with a Master›s degree, while Group 2 comprised those with a secondary school degree. Voluntary and anonymous questionnaire studies, a questionnaire developed by the authors, 26 close-ended simple choice questions were used. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann-Whitney U test, STATISTICA 10.0 software. The significance level was established at p < 0.05.

Results:
Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between the nurses with a Master›s degree and those with a secondary school education occurred in the case of 10 out of 24 questions. The nurses with higher education had better knowledge on hospital infections spread by the contact route.

Conclusions:
1. The knowledge of nurses on hospital infections spread by the contact route is diverse and depends on the level of their education. 2. Nurses with a Master›s degree had better knowledge on hospital infections; however, this level of knowledge is still insufficient to fully protect patients and nurses. 3. Due to the insufficient level of knowledge of nurses on hospital infections, there is an urgent need to perform all necessary educational activities to improve the knowledge of nurses within this area. 4. Better awareness of threats associated with hospital infections may influence the frequency of following the medical procedures which, in turn, may influence the performance of conscious actions in order to prevent the incidence of hospital infections.