New findings highlight clinician perspectives on barriers to reliable hand hygiene

97% believed personal hand hygiene is effective in preventing HAIs, and overall, respondents assigned a relatively low level of effort required to perform good HH when caring for patients (median 2 on a Likert scale of 0-10). However, 28% of respondents reported using gloves as a substitute for hand hygiene, and 12% felt hand hygiene education for healthcare workers is not an effective means of improving reliability.
87% reported alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) availability as very effective in improving reliability, however 77% reported dispensers were “sometimes” or “often” empty.
27% reported that ABHR is irritating to the skin. Clinicians in surgery/anesthesia were more likely than those in other medical specialties to note skin irritation from ABHR (OR 4.94) and less likely to believe feedback was effective in improving hand hygiene (OR 0.26).
25% of respondents indicated the layout of patient care areas was not conducive to performing hand hygiene.
15% reported that staffing shortages and 11% said the pace and demands of work precluded hand hygiene.
Compared with their later career counterparts, early career clinicians were more likely to report feedback from both colleagues (OR 4.20) and patients (OR 4.20) as effective in improving hand hygiene reliability.