American Journal of Infection Control 43 (2015) 159-61
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
American Journal of Infection Control
American Journal of Infection Control
journal homepage: www.ajicjournal.org
Brief report
See one, do one, teach one: Hand hygiene attitudes among medical students, interns, and faculty Marc A. Polacco MD a, *, Laura Shinkunas BA a, Eli N. Perencevich MD, MS b, c, Lauris C. Kaldjian MD, PhD a, b, Heather Schacht Reisinger PhD a, b, c a b c
Program in Bioethics and Humanities, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Center for Comprehensive Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation, Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Iowa City, IA
Key Words: Hand hygiene Academic training Attitudes
An anonymous, online survey of medical students, interns, and faculty at a university hospital was conducted in 2013 to examine self-reported adherence to hand hygiene opportunities. Variation in selfreported adherence ranged from frequencies of 60%-100%. Such variation suggests the need to direct education toward hand hygiene opportunities with lower reported rates of adherence, especially toward those opportunities that are difficult to monitor. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are among the most common preventable medical complications that result from errors and unsafe practices.1 Occurring in almost 5% of hospitalized patients, HAIs increase morbidity and mortality and length of hospital stay, placing a great burden on health care services.2,3 To help hospitals reduce the risk of HAIs, evidence-based guidelines have been introduced by multiple national and international agencies, often with a focus on the role of hand hygiene in lowering infection rates.4 Despite such initiatives, low hand hygiene adherence rates remain a significant concern.5 To develop hand hygiene improvement interventions, which are effective and sustainable, better understanding of where to target monitoring and educational efforts is needed. To improve such understanding, we surveyed medical students, interns, and faculty physicians regarding their hand hygiene attitudes and self-reported behaviors for 14 potential hand hygiene opportunities.
METHODS We conducted an anonymous, online survey consisting of questions designed to assess self-reported hand hygiene behavior
* Address correspondence to Heather Schacht Reisinger, PhD, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. E-mail address: [email protected] (H.S. Reisinger). Conflicts of interest: None to report.
and attitudes. The survey consisted of questions regarding situations in which one would wash his or her hands and reasons for not washing hands. The description of opportunities for hand hygiene was based on established recommendations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and World Health Organization’s My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene).6 Response options to these questions used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very unlikely to very likely. The study was conducted at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, a tertiary care center that had 692 beds and 29,949 hospital admissions in 2012. The survey was sent to all fourth year medical students; all interns in the departments of internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine; and all faculty physicians in those 3 departments whose clinical work included inpatient attending duties. The study was approved by the University of Iowa’s Institutional Review Board. Frequencies and c2 tests were performed to compare categorical data between groups. Fisher exact test was used instead of the c2 test when the expected frequency for any given cell was
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
American Journal of Infection Control
American Journal of Infection Control
journal homepage: www.ajicjournal.org
Brief report
See one, do one, teach one: Hand hygiene attitudes among medical students, interns, and faculty Marc A. Polacco MD a, *, Laura Shinkunas BA a, Eli N. Perencevich MD, MS b, c, Lauris C. Kaldjian MD, PhD a, b, Heather Schacht Reisinger PhD a, b, c a b c
Program in Bioethics and Humanities, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Center for Comprehensive Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation, Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Iowa City, IA
Key Words: Hand hygiene Academic training Attitudes
An anonymous, online survey of medical students, interns, and faculty at a university hospital was conducted in 2013 to examine self-reported adherence to hand hygiene opportunities. Variation in selfreported adherence ranged from frequencies of 60%-100%. Such variation suggests the need to direct education toward hand hygiene opportunities with lower reported rates of adherence, especially toward those opportunities that are difficult to monitor. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are among the most common preventable medical complications that result from errors and unsafe practices.1 Occurring in almost 5% of hospitalized patients, HAIs increase morbidity and mortality and length of hospital stay, placing a great burden on health care services.2,3 To help hospitals reduce the risk of HAIs, evidence-based guidelines have been introduced by multiple national and international agencies, often with a focus on the role of hand hygiene in lowering infection rates.4 Despite such initiatives, low hand hygiene adherence rates remain a significant concern.5 To develop hand hygiene improvement interventions, which are effective and sustainable, better understanding of where to target monitoring and educational efforts is needed. To improve such understanding, we surveyed medical students, interns, and faculty physicians regarding their hand hygiene attitudes and self-reported behaviors for 14 potential hand hygiene opportunities.
METHODS We conducted an anonymous, online survey consisting of questions designed to assess self-reported hand hygiene behavior
* Address correspondence to Heather Schacht Reisinger, PhD, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. E-mail address: [email protected] (H.S. Reisinger). Conflicts of interest: None to report.
and attitudes. The survey consisted of questions regarding situations in which one would wash his or her hands and reasons for not washing hands. The description of opportunities for hand hygiene was based on established recommendations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and World Health Organization’s My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene).6 Response options to these questions used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very unlikely to very likely. The study was conducted at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, a tertiary care center that had 692 beds and 29,949 hospital admissions in 2012. The survey was sent to all fourth year medical students; all interns in the departments of internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine; and all faculty physicians in those 3 departments whose clinical work included inpatient attending duties. The study was approved by the University of Iowa’s Institutional Review Board. Frequencies and c2 tests were performed to compare categorical data between groups. Fisher exact test was used instead of the c2 test when the expected frequency for any given cell was
