Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Mar 29;60(1):E31-E35.
doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2019.60.1.918. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Improvement of hand hygiene compliance among health care workers in intensive care units

M M Anwar  1 , H R Elareed  1
Affiliations

Improvement of hand hygiene compliance among health care workers in intensive care units

M M Anwar et al. J Prev Med Hyg. .

Abstract

Aim: Hand hygiene (HH) is an essential component in preventing healthcare associated infections. The purpose of this study was to evaluate HH compliance among health care workers (HCWs) in intensive care units at Beni-Suef university hospital, Egypt before and after an intervention educational program.

Methods: Data were collected by using the standardized WHO method for direct observation ''Five moments for HH'' approach. Observations were conducted in six ICUs before intervention (March to April 2017) and after the intervention (July to August 2017). The study included 608 opportunities (observations) among 177 HCWs collected before and 673 opportunities among 163 HCWs collected after the intervention.

Results: Overall HH compliance increased significantly from 30.9 (95% CI: 27.2-34.6%) before intervention to 69.5 (95% CI: 65.2-72.6%) post intervention; with the highest HH compliance rate among nurses compared to physicians and workers (P = 0.001). Significantly higher HH compliance rates were observed after body fluid exposure, before aseptic procedures, and after patient contact compared to before patient contact and after patient surrounding contact (P = 0.001). In binary logistic regression analyses a statistically significant difference was shown (P = 0.047) for HH compliance among events before and after patient contact (OR = 1.399, 95% CI: 1.004-1.948).

Conclusions: The interventional educational program improved the HH compliance among ICUs-HCWs at Beni-Suef university hospital. The hospital should conduct monthly observational monitoring for the ICUs units sharing the findings to spread best practices. Provision of sustained training programs to help efficient and effective HH for care delivery is mandatory.

Keywords: Compliance; HCWs; Hand hygiene.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Boyce JM, Larson EL, Pittet D. Hand hygiene must be enabled and promoted. Am J Infect Control 2012;40(Suppl. 1):S2.4. - PubMed
    1. Al-Tawfiq JA, Pittet D. Improving hand hygiene compliance in healthcare settings using behavior change theories: reflections. Teach Learn Med 2013;25:374-82. - PubMed
    1. Derde LP, Cooper BS, Goossens H, Malhotra-Kumar S, Willems RJL, Gniadkowski M, Hryniewicz W, Empel J, Dautzenberg MJD, Annane D, Aragão I, Chalfine A, Dumpis U, Esteves F, Giamarellou H, Muzlovic I, Nardi G, Petrikkos GL, Tomic V, Martí AT, Stammet P, Brun-Buisson C, Bonten MJM, MOSAR WP3 Study Team Interventions to reduce colonisation and transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in intensive care units: an interrupted time series study and cluster randomized trial. Lancet Infect Dis 2014;14:31-9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allegranzi B, Gayet-Ageron A, Damani N. Global implementation of WHO’s multimodal strategy for improvement of hand hygiene: a quasi-experimental study. Lancet Infect Dis 2013;13:843-51. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines on hand hygiene in health care: first global patient safety challenge clean care is safer care 2009 [cited 2012 May 15]; available from www.who.int/patientsafety/en/www.who.int/gpsc/en. - PubMed