A study published in American Journal of Infection Control examined the likelihood of healthcare professionals speaking up about breaches in infection control, such as nonadherence to hand hygiene protocols.
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey study involving 1,217 healthcare professionals in five Switzerland-based hospitals. They studied speaking-up behaviors, safety climate and likelihood to speak up about poor hand hygiene practice described in a vignette.
Here are four survey findings
1. Fifty-six percent of healthcare professionals reported that they would speak up to a colleague with poor hand hygiene practices.
2. Nurses felt more discomfort with speaking up and reported a slightly lower likelihood of speaking up as compared to physicians.
3. Clinical function (hierarchy) was strongly associated with speaking-up behavior.
4. Higher risk of harm to the patient and higher frequencies of past speaking-up behaviors were positively linked with the likelihood to speak up.
"Infection control interventions should empower [healthcare professionals] to speak up about non-adherence with prevention practices by addressing authority gradients and risk perceptions and by focusing on resignation," study authors concluded.