Direct Monitoring of Hand Hygiene Compliance: The Comprehension and Practice of "My Five Moments of Hand Hygiene" and the "Direct Observation Method"

Abstract

Hand hygiene monitoring is widely conducted as process surveillance for health care-associated infection control. However, monitoring human behavior using a single method is difficult; a combination of product consumption surveys and direct observation is recommended by the World Health Organization's multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy (WHOMMHHIS). The Train-the-Trainers in hand hygiene (TTT) seminar, based on the WHOMMHHIS, was held in Japan by staff from the University of Geneva as instructors. The trainees are currently holding TTT-Japan seminars and are creating Japanese training tools to help students understand "My Five Moments of Hand Hygiene" and the direct observation method. They will soon be released on the web, along with other WHOMMHHIS tools. It is hoped that initiatives to improve hand hygiene compliance will become more active by comprehensively implementing a multimodal hand hygiene strategy that includes the cultivation of an institutional safety culture.