Hand Hygiene Compliance by the Health Care Staff in a Pediatric Hospital

Abstract

Background: Hospital acquired infections lead to significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Proper implementation of hand hygiene by health care personnel (HCP) prevents nosocomial infections. Objectives: To monitor hand hygiene compliance by the medical and nursing staff in different wards of a children's hospital. Patients and Methods: Four wards were selected for surveillance. In observation periods of 20 minutes each, a trained Pediatric resident observed four patient beds and hand hygiene behavior of health care professionals, physicians (house staff) and nurses, before and after touching the patients. The contacts were classified as 'high-risk' if the person came in contact with body fluids or 'low-risk' if there was no such contact. Findings were documented on a predesigned Hand Hygiene Observation Tool. Results: Overall, 510 patient contacts were observed and 1020 hand hygiene opportunities before and after patient contact were recorded. In total, 302 contacts (59.2%) were low risk and 208 (40.7%) were high risk. The HCP used disposable and surgical gloves before 87, (41.82%) high risk and 27, (8.94%), low risk contacts; however, no hand washing or the use of alcohol hand rubs before contact was recorded by the observer stationed by the patients' bedside. The observer could not ascertain if the HCP washed their hands before entering the 3-6 bedded rooms. Conclusions: Serious lack of adherence to standard protocols for hand hygiene by the HCP together with inappropriate glove use, calls for an urgent strategic planning to educate, train and motivate the health care personnel in all aspects of hand hygiene practices.

Impact of WHO Hand Hygiene Improvement Program Implementation: A Quasi-Experimental Trial

“…Contrary to other studies, after intervention, HH compliance of nurses (72.6%), auxiliaries (65.15%), and medical doctors (82.35%) rose dramatically [1, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 32–34]. This finding of the present study could be probably due to the small number of observed opportunities among medical doctors or their better recall of previous knowledge after educational intervention.…”

“…Healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) is one of the most important challenges of healthcare systems due to its strong impact on patient's safety and high financial burden [1–4]. In developed countries, the prevalence of HCAI is estimated between 5.1% and 11.6% [5].…”

The role of the intensive care unit environment and health-care workers in the transmission of bacteria associated with hospital acquired infections

“…The role of the ICU staff and environment in HAIs should be considered when devising strategies to prevent or reduce the occurrence of these infections among the highly sensitive patients. There are some reports that showed poor hand hygiene compliance among different hospital staff in Iran [7][8][9]. However, few data exist on the microbial contamination of HCWs' hands and the hospital environment in the studied hospitals.…”

Perspective of Health Care Professionals in Two Teaching Hospitals Regarding Hand Hygiene

“…Generally, researchers acknowledge that improving compliance to HH is a complex issue; despite the fact that most HCPs possess the required knowledge and a positive attitude, compliance with standard HH protocols remains low in most countries (6,9,11,14,15). A study in France noted that continuous education, poster reminders, and compliance by a senior health care worker who served as a role model had a positive effect on overall adherence to HH by the nursing staff (16).…”