Brief reportHand hygiene assessment in the workplace using a UV lamp
Section snippets
Methods
This descriptive study was performed at the Infanta Cristina Hospital, a referral hospital of the district of Badajoz, serving a population of more than 276,000, with 831 beds and approximately 4,800 HCWs. The hospital has annual totals of 40,434 hospital admissions, 31,533 surgeries, and 2,430 births, and an average stay of 6.84 days (data for 2013).10 All HCWs who were working in their usual health care shift and agreed to participate were included.
The study was conducted in 3 periods between
Results
HH technique was evaluated in 705 participants, including 133 physicians (18.87%), 241 nurses (34.18%), 214 nursing assistants (30.35%), and 117 other HCWs (16.61%). The distribution of the professionals by service type was 62.13% medical (n = 438) and 37.87% surgical (n = 267).
The results of observation of the 5 areas of both hands varied according to study period and HCW category (Table 1). It showed homogeneous distribution of the ABHR on palms (94.59%-100% of participants) and in the
Discussion
In the present study, the majority of HCWs did not apply the HH technique effectively; only 9.5% covered the 5 regions of both hands completely. The thumbs and fingertips were the most common areas not rubbed. Wearing a wristwatch, bracelet, or rings and having long or polished nails hindered good HH.
Although previous studies have evaluated HH using marked ABHR, the different methodological approaches in those studies make it difficult to compare the results. Macdonald et al13 evaluated the
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2021, Nurse Education TodayCitation Excerpt :Diefenbacher et al. (2019) reported that feedback is a useful approach for improving HH. It has been emphasized that showing NSs the areas of their hands covered with fluorescent material, and informing them about microorganism colonization on the surfaces, can be an effective educational tool to overcome the deficiencies in HH and improve attitudes towards it (Öncü et al., 2018; Škodová et al., 2015). NSs learn about handwashing in the first year of their education and understand the importance of handwashing.
A multimodal approach as a strategy to improve hand hygiene compliance: A literature review
2019, Enfermeria ClinicaContinued direct observation and feedback of hand hygiene adherence can result in long-term improvement
2016, American Journal of Infection ControlCitation Excerpt :Surface contamination with bacteria is invisible; this is one general reason for low compliance with hand hygiene in the before settings. Visualization of bacteria with a hand skin culture would increase the degree of hand hygiene compliance.13,17,18 We analyzed the relationship between the compliance rate in 2005 and the increase in rates over the following years.
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2024, Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection ControlThe impact of an effective 3-step hand hygiene technique in reducing potentially pathogenic microorganisms found on nursing professionals’ hands
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Funding/support: No public or private funding was received for this study.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.