Hand hygiene compliance of healthcare professionals in an emergency department

• Main Authors: Caroline Zottele (Author), Tania Solange Bosi de Souza Magnago (Author), Angela Isabel dos Santos Dullius (Author), Adriane Cristina Bernat Kolankiewicz (Author), Juliana Dal Ongaro (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: SciELO, 2017-08-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1980-220X; 10.1590/s1980-220x2016027303242
• Keywords: Hand Hygiene; Patient Safety; Cross Infection; Emergency Nursing; Advance Directive Adherence; Emergency Medical Services; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Nursing; RT1-120; Mental healing; RZ400-408; Education (General); L7-991
• Source: Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, Vol 51, Iss 0 (2017)

Abstract OBJECTIVE To analyze compliance with hand hygiene by healthcare professionals in an emergency department unit. METHOD This is a longitudinal quantitative study developed in 2015 with healthcare professionals from a university hospital in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Each professional was monitored three times by direct non-participant observation at WHO's five recommended moments in hand hygiene, taking the concepts of opportunity, indication and action into account. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used. RESULTS Fifty-nine healthcare professionals participated in the study. The compliance rate was 54.2%. Nurses and physiotherapists showed a compliance rate of 66.6% and resident physicians, 41.3%. When compliance was compared among professional categories, nurses showed greater compliance than resident physicians (OR = 2.83, CI = 95%: 1.09-7.34). CONCLUSION Hand hygiene compliance was low. Multidisciplinary approaches could be important strategies for forming partnerships to develop learning and implementation of hand hygiene practices.