Hand hygiene among patients: Attitudes, perceptions, and willingness to participate

Discrepancy in perceptions regarding patient participation in hand hygiene between patients and health care workers

“…4 That is, patients cannot be actively engaged without a facilitating environment provided by HCWs. 22 This view was confirmed in previous studies 11,14 where an explicit invitation from HCWs increased patients' intention to ask for HH. That is why the acceptance and willingness of HCWs must be examined first.…”

“…The positive attitude of patients toward PP in our study was as high as reported in previous studies. 9,10,13,14,17 However the positive perception of HCWs (25%-30%) was much lower than in other studies. 16,18,19 The difference in HCWs' acceptance level might result from differences in the context or culture of the institutions, the relative proportions of the occupation categories, or the ages or ethnic groups of the respondents.…”

Examining bed-bath practices of critically ill patients

“…According to Abela and Borg (2012), [33] nursing staff should be continuously educated and suggested posters to be combined with educational sessions for the staff to impact positively on the compliance to hygiene routines. In addition, Wu et al (2013) [34] stated that if nurses are aware of infection transmission they will be more motivated to follow hygiene routines than others will. Skår (2009) [35] reported that the use of experienced nurses' knowledge in everyday nursing practice contributes significantly to the quality of health care.…”

Ask, speak up, and be proactive: Empowering patient infection control to prevent health care–acquired infections

“…15,16,32 In a large telephone survey of Americans, 80% of participants indicated that they were willing to ask their HCW to wash their hands if they received an explanation from the HCW about the importance of asking. 32 In addition, Longtin et al 19 also found that an invitation from a HCW doubled the reported intention to ask HCWs to HH.…”

“…Our results are aligned with previous international studies that have reported hospital patient willingness (ie, to remind them to perform HH) levels ranging from 24%-79%. [16][17][18][19][20][21] The willingness of our patients to participate varied considerably depending on the activity that they were presented with. Patients reported that they were highly willing to ask general questions about the signs and symptoms of infection but less likely to engage with staff and challenge them about their HH behaviors.…”