Promote Hand Hygiene Behavior among Jordanian Registered Nurses using Videotaping

Background: Hand hygiene (HH) is considered one of the most important infection control measures for preventing healthcare-associated infections. Compliance rates with recommended HH practices in hospitals remain low especially in developing countries. The risk of nosocomial infections in the patient population continues to grow, especially in critical ill patients. Failure to wash hands or perform HH is a complex problem that may be caused by a number of external and internal factors.
Objective: To determine the effect of suggested education program on the level of HH compliance rate among Jordanian Registered Nurses (JRNs’)

Methods: Setting: Ten Jordanian public hospitals.
Sample: Five hundred and seventy four JRNs of both genders, with different experience levels, who provided direct patient care, and who worked at least one day per week were invited to participate in the study.
Study Design: Quasi-experimental design, the JRNs assigned randomly to experimental and control groups
Instruments: Videotaping and Hand washing Assessment Instrument
Data Collection: Two methods were used to collect the data. The first method was direct observation utilizing a video camera. The second method was self-report of HH using the Hand washing Assessment Instrument that based on theory of planned behavior.
Intervention: It included educational slide set which include a slide set that gives an overview of HH guideline, Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention recommendations, fact sheet about alcohol-based hand-rubs. Each nurse watched video tape about the importance of HH practices.  Educational colour posters were displayed in many locations in the hospitals. Poster topics were: hand hygiene, hospital-acquired infections, and protecting hands with creams
Results: Significant relationships were found between the predictor variables of the theory of planned behavior and the intention to perform HH
Before intervention, HH compliance rate before invasive procedures using videotaping was 27%, HH compliance rate by self report was 100%.
After intervention; HH compliance rate before invasive procedures using videotaping was 73%, by self report was 100%.

Conclusions:

Findings in this study emphasized the inadequacy of the self-report approach. HH compliance should be measured by actual observation, despite the cost of observational procedures. Significant differences in HH compliance rate before and after the intervention indicates that HH compliance rate can be increased in Jordanian health care settings by utilizing suggested educational program