Hand Hygiene Compliance and Nurse-Patient Ratio Using Videotaping and Self Report
- 1 July 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice
- Vol. 17 (4), 243-247
- https://doi.org/10.1097/ipc.0b013e318195e1bf
Abstract
Background: Appropriately implemented, hand hygiene can prevent nosocomial infections, but there is a lack of research on the effect of specific nurse-patient ratios on hand hygiene compliance rates. Furthermore, there have been few studies of infection control practices in Jordanian hospitals. Methods: One hundred registered nurses from a private health care setting in Jordan who worked in intensive care units and medical-surgical wards participated. Two methods, videotaping and self-report, were used to collect data on hand hygiene. Subjects also completed a questionnaire to assess hand hygiene behavior, attitudes, and beliefs. Results: The overall hand hygiene compliance rate was 32%. Nurse-patient ratios affected hand hygiene before beginning patient care only. The lowest hand hygiene compliance rates were in intensive care units when the nurse-patient ratio was less than 1:2. Females had higher compliance rates than males. Conclusions The observed low level of overall hand hygiene compliance, lower compliance rates in higher acuity settings, and gender-related differences in compliance are consistent with findings from previous studies of hand hygiene over the past 2 decades.Keywords
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