Visual triggers increase hand hygiene compliance, researchers find

Published: 9-Jun-2016

Repulsive images of bacterial cultures motivate hospital staff to comply with hand hygiene guidelines

Showing healthcare workers stomach-churning images of bacterial growth can persuade healthcare workers to wash their hands more often, according to a new US study.

The infection control team at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, used images of bacterial growth to provoke feelings of disgust and motivate hospital staff to comply with hand hygiene guidelines.

The team developed a book of images containing bacterial cultures of differing types and levels of contamination, as measured by Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) meter readings. They tested the images on hospital wards that had low hand hygiene compliance rates, and over a two-month period they visited those wards 10 times, sampled workers’ hands for bacteria, and then showed them pictures of cultures similar to the contamination on their hands. Compliance increased by between 11 and 46 percentage points in units where the study was conducted.

'Hospital staff wanted to wash their hands after looking at the book and picturing similar contamination on their own skin,' said Ashley Gregory, an infection prevention specialist who co-led the project.

'Using this example, other institutions may be able to change behaviour and improve their hand hygiene compliance rates by influencing staff to connect the images of microbial contamination with non-adherence to hand hygiene guidelines.'

Hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of infection, and yet it can be one of the most difficult benchmarks to improve

The programme also motivated healthcare personnel to take ownership of the environmental cleaning of their workspace. By comparing the ATP readings taken from phones, mobile workstations, and computer mouse devices to the photos in the book of germ images, these workers were able to visualise the contamination on the surfaces surrounding them.

The results were presented on 11 June at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in Charlotte, NC, US.

'Hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of infection, and yet it can be one of the most difficult benchmarks to improve,' said APIC 2016 President Susan Dolan, and hospital epidemiologist, Children’s Hospital Colorado.

'The visual nature of this approach proved successful for the team at Henry Ford Health System, and it may offer an effective strategy for other healthcare facilities that are looking for ways to change behaviour and improve hand hygiene compliance.'

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 700,000 healthcare-associated infections occur in US acute care hospitals every year. It is well documented that effective hand hygiene helps reduce the spread of infections. Despite this evidence, healthcare workers practise hand hygiene less than half of the times that they should.

Trending Articles

You may also like