Studies show: Even when subjects make a lot of effort in disinfection and rub for more than 30 seconds, more than 50% of disinfections gaps – if no training has taken place beforehand. ^[1-2]

This is a big problem, because where no disinfectant can reach, no germs will be killed.

The most common errors include incomplete wetting of the skin with disinfectant through a patchy rubbing technique. In everyday life, moreover, too little disinfectant used – on average only 1.7ml instead of the recommended 3ml – which means that not all skin areas remain moistened for the prescribed exposure time. ^[3-4]

The following figure shows schematically typical deficiencies in hand disinfection, which we can correct through targeted training:

Fig.: Defects in hand disinfection

Training as the key
for motivation.

Targeted training raises awareness of the problem and brings about behavioural changes that not only Quality, but also the regular compliance (compliance) of hand disinfection.

Observational studies have shown that the relative frequency of hand disinfection increases significantly immediately after a hygiene training was completed. Overall, the motivation for regular disinfection increases immensely through training. ^[5-11]

Simple psychological effects are suspected to be behind this:

The training courses ensure that we remember the necessary hand hygiene more often and greatly increase our motivation to disinfect our hands regularly.

Sources:

[1] “Influence of rub-in technique on required application time and hand coverage in hygienic hand disinfection.” BMC Infectious Diseases; 8:149 (2008)

[2] “An evaluation of handwashing techniques.” Nurs Times:54-5 (1978)

[3] “Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates in the United States—A One-Year Multicenter Collaboration Using Product/Volume Usage Measurement and Feedback.” American Journal of Medical Quality, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2009)

[4] “Experimental study on disinfection effect of different doses of rapid hand disinfectant.” Int J Nurs Sci 1(2):212–214 (2014)

[5] “Investigating the prevention of hospital acquired infection through standardized teaching ward rounds in clinical nursing.” Genet Mol Res 14(2):3753–3759 (2015)

[6] “Hand hygiene in preventing nosocomial infections: a nursing research.” Ann Ig 27(2):485–491 (2014)

[7] “Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care.” Cochrane Database Syst Rev 9:CD005186 (2010)

[8] “Patient empowerment and hand hygiene.” 1997–2012. J Hosp Infect 84(3):191–199 (2013)

[9] “Systematic review of the effectiveness of strategies to encourage patients to remind healthcare professionals about their hand hygiene.” J Hosp Infect 89(3):141–162 (2015)

[10] “Long-term sustainability of hand hygiene improvements in the hemodialysis setting.” Infection 41(3):675–680 (2013)

[11] “Improving hand hygiene compliance in the anesthesia working room work area: More than just more hand rubs.” Am J Infect Control 41(11):1001–1006 (2013)