Researchers invited a random sample of nurses in a large teaching hospital to complete a postal survey using a validated questionnaire in 2007. They replicated the survey in 2015 among all nurses employed in a university hospital group, including the setting of the original survey.
Here are four study findings:
1. Attitudes to hand hygiene were positive.
2. More than 90 percent of respondents self-reported compliance before and after patient contact in 2015.
3. In 2015, 42 percent of nurses reported using alcohol-based handrub more than 90 percent of the time as compared to 55 percent of nurses in 2007.
3. Of nurses with less than 2 years of experience, 90 percent reported using alcohol-based handrub more than 50 percent of the time versus 73 percent of nurses with two to five years of experience.
4. Barriers to alcohol-based handrub improved, but remained a significant deterrent. The barriers include skin sensitivity; skin damage; and poor user acceptability and tolerance.
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