Nurses' perceptions of reasons for persistent low rates in hand hygiene compliance.
AIM
The purpose of this study was to explore nurses' perceptions of reasons for persistent low rates in hand hygiene compliance in the Critical Care Unit and their recommendations for improvement.


DESIGN AND METHODS
This study used an exploratory, descriptive survey design to identify critical care nurses' perceptions of barriers to hand hygiene compliance in the unit and their recommendations for improvement.


RESULTS
Nurses selected high workload, understaffing and suggested lack of time as the main problems with hand hygiene compliance in the critical care unit. Second to that, they identified difficulty accessing sinks and lack of appropriately located hand sanitisers at the point of care complemented by suggestions of not enough sinks and inconveniently located hand sanitiser as major barriers to hand hygiene compliance.


CONCLUSION
Results of this study indicate that high workload and understaffing added to difficulty accessing hand hygiene resources contribute to low rates of hand hygiene compliance in the critical care unit. Addressing nursing understaffing and workload and making some environmental modifications to allow easy access to sinks and hand sanitisers may facilitate nurses hand hygiene compliance in this setting. Further studies on the relationship between nurses' workload, unit staffing, and hand hygiene compliance rates are needed.
['Sadule-Rios|Nohemi|N|', 'Aguilera|Graciela|G|']
D064648:Critical Care Nursing D004864:Equipment and Supplies D019983:Guideline Adherence D063373:Hand Hygiene D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice D006801:Humans D007362:Intensive Care Units D009726:Nurses D010465:Perception D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D000078329:Workforce D016526:Workload
Hand hygiene Critical care unit Barriers Noncompliance