Abstract
Effective hand hygiene is one of the easiest ways to reduce healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) (WHO 2009a). This study is based on a previous study by Barrett and Randle (2008) which examined student nurses knowledge and the barriers that they faced to hand hygiene compliance. A thorough literature review revealed a lack of empirical studies that examined Health care workers hand hygiene practices within nursing homes. This study consequently examined HCWs’ perceptions of their own and patients’ hand hygiene and explored the barriers to effective hand hygiene within a nursing home setting. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with HCWs who were working in a private nursing home.
One main theme was identified within from the data entitled the theory-practice gap. Within this theme, three categories were present and included: “knowledge”, “barriers” and “practice improvement”. All categories contributed to the theme “The theory-practice gap”. It was evident that although HCWs had a level of hand hygiene knowledge, this did not translate into practice. HCWs did however have ideas of how to improve practice.
HCWs identified a number of barriers to hand hygiene compliance. Many of these barriers have been previously identified within the literature (Barrett and Randle 2008, Harris et al. 2000, Camins and Fraser 2005). The most dominant of these barriers was accessibility to facilities including lack of alcohol-gel within nursing homes. The barriers had a negative impact on HCWs’ hand hygiene compliance despite their knowledge that effective hand hygiene reduces the number of HCAIs. Health care workers knowledge about hand hygiene practices could be improved to overcome certain barriers to hand hygiene compliances
