Patient participation in hand hygiene among health professionals

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the perception and attitude of health professionals (HPs) about the patient participation in hand hygiene (HH). Method: A cross-sectional study with 150 HPs from a university hospital in Brazil. A descriptive analysis was conducted. Results: Simple hand hygiene...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Adriana Cristina de Oliveira, Selma de Almeida Pinto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem
Series:Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-71672018000200259&lng=en&tlng=en
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the perception and attitude of health professionals (HPs) about the patient participation in hand hygiene (HH). Method: A cross-sectional study with 150 HPs from a university hospital in Brazil. A descriptive analysis was conducted. Results: Simple hand hygiene was the preferred method of HPs, rather than hand rubbing with alcohol-based solutions. A total of 83.3% of the HPs supported the patient participation in reminding them about HH, but 48% reported that they would feel uncomfortable; 45.3%, comfortable; and 20.7% were familiar with the "Patients for Patient Safety" program. Conclusion: HPs showed limited knowledge about HH, opposing recommendations on the topic. The contradiction between the HPs acceptance and attitude when questioned by the patient regarding HH was revealed, reflecting a lack of knowledge about the WHO program and the need to implement educational practices in health.
ISSN:1984-0446