Healthcare workers perception regarding hand hygiene

In: Revista de Pesquisa: Cuidado é Fundamental Online, Band 9, Heft 2, S. 321-326

Abstract

Objective: To verify aspects related to the perception of healthcare workers regarding hand hygiene. Methods:
Cross-sectional study in a emergency care unit at a university hospital in Belo Horizonte. A structured
questionnaire was applied to nursing and medical staff. The statistic program SPSS was used, descriptive and
univariate analysis were made. Results: Healthcare workers attributed as high the impact of infections on
clinical evolution of patients and the effectiveness of hand hygiene in controlling those infections. The rate for
self-reported compliance to hand hygiene was 76.0% for the nursing staff and 72.5% for medical staff, but lower
than 60.0% for coworkers. Conclusions: Healthcare workers perceive hand hygiene as an effective measure to
control infection and recognize that compliance rates of hand hygiene among health teams in general are low.