A multifaceted educational intervention led to increased awareness of hand hygiene opportunities and improved compliance in a large district hospital's radiology unit, according to a study published in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control.
Researchers used questionnaires to assess the knowledge and attitudes toward hand hygiene among healthcare workers in the radiology unit. Researchers also directly observed participants during the study. Seventy-six radiographers, 17 nurses and nine healthcare assistants participated in the study. Of these, 85 completed the initial and 76 the post-test anonymous questionnaire.
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Researchers examined hand hygiene compliance in a three-week period prior to and after the intervention. The two-month intervention included talks on hand hygiene and benefits of alcohol-based hand rub, visual aids, wall-mounted alcohol-based hand rub dispensers and personal bottles of alcohol-based hand rub.
Overall hand hygiene compliance prior to the intervention was 28.9 percent. This percentage rose to 51.4 percent after the intervention.
Additionally, the increased use of alcohol-based hand rub allowed the healthcare workers to feel they had enough time to perform hand hygiene protocols.
"The reduced time needed to perform hand rubbing and improved access to dispensers resulted in fewer missed opportunities," concluded study authors.