Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing hand hygiene behavior (compliance and quality) of nurses strongly and to provide suggestions for improvement.
Method: An observational study and a questionnaire survey were conducted with 93 subjects, nurses at the two hospitals. Factors were experience, education, concern of infection control, knowledge, and workload: intensity of patient care and understaffing.
Results: Factors influencing compliance were identified as intensity of patient care, education, and experience. Factors influencing quality of hand hygiene were identified as intensity of patient care and understaffing. Noncompliance was higher when intensity of patient care was high (compared with <25 incidents of patient care per hour, 25 to 34 incidents: OR (odds ratio). 7.75 (CI, 1.54 to 39.03);> 35 incidents: OR. 12.99 (CI, 1.64 to 102.72)). Quality of hand hygiene was inferior when intensity of patient care was high (compared with <25 incidents of patient care per hour, 25 to 34 incidents: OR. 6.86 (CI, 1.43 to 32.95);> 35 incidents: OR. 28.52 (CI, 2.43 to 335.08)).
Conclusion: These results suggest that factors influencing hand hygiene behavior may be workload, education, and experience. In order to improvement of hand hygiene behavior, improvement of patient care system, recommendation and training for handrub, and enforcement of hospital-wide educational program of infection control may be useful.
