Experts Offer Tips for Making Hand Hygiene Lessons Stick

Why not make one of this year’s resolutions to finally knock hand hygiene compliance rates out of the park? This year, figure out how to make hand hygiene “stick” for your staff. Methods to teach and encourage proper methods of hand hygiene and compliance for all staff members range from the personal, to the sneaky, to the outright gross. Here’s a roundup of tips, tricks, and tools from two of ECRI Institute’s infection prevention specialists, Sharon Bradley, RN, CIC, and James Davis, BSN, RN, CCRN, CIC.

Most important, say Davis and Bradley, is an understanding of hand hygiene’s long-term effects. “You need to make people understand that there is a ripple effect when hand hygiene is not performed; it hurts the patients,” says Davis. “In critical care, you may perfectly manage one patient on continuous renal replacement therapy, a ventilator, and an intra-aortic balloon pump. However, if you’re not washing your hands, you’re not helping them as much as you think.” Simply put, not washing your hands can undo all of your efforts toward a patient’s health and survival.

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