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Educating healthcare workers to optimal hand hygiene practices: addressing the need

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Abstract

The education of healthcare workers is essential to improve practices and is an integral part of hand hygiene promotional strategies. According to the evidence reviewed here, healthcare worker education has a positive impact on improving hand hygiene and reducing healthcare-associated infection. Detailed practical guidance on steps for the organization of education programmes in healthcare facilities and teaching–learning strategies are provided using the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in Health Care as the basis for recommendations. Several key elements for a successful educational programme are also identified. A particular emphasis is placed on concepts included in the tools developed by WHO for education, monitoring and performance feedback.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of the WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge “Clean Care is Safer Care” core group (lead, Didier Pittet): John Boyce, Barry Cookson, Nizam Damani, Don Goldmann, Lindsay Grayson, Geeta Mehta, Ziad Memish, Hervé Richet, Manfred Rotter, Syed Sattar, Andreas Voss and Andreas Widmer. We are indebted to Rosemary Sudan for expert editorial assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. First Global Patient Safety Challenge, World Health Organization Patient Safety, Geneva, Switzerland

    E. Mathai, B. Allegranzi & D. Pittet

  2. Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China

    W. H. Seto

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Infection Control Programme, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

    M.-N. Chraïti, H. Sax & D. Pittet

  4. Columbia University School of Nursing and Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    E. Larson

  5. Infection Control Programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, 4 Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil, 1211, Geneva 14, Switzerland

    D. Pittet

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  1. E. Mathai
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  2. B. Allegranzi
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  4. M.-N. Chraïti
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  5. H. Sax
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Correspondence to D. Pittet.

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Mathai, E., Allegranzi, B., Seto, W.H. et al. Educating healthcare workers to optimal hand hygiene practices: addressing the need. Infection 38, 349–356 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-010-0047-7

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