11 Barriers to Hand Hygiene Compliance

Time pressure is one of the biggest reported barriers to hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers, according to a study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

Of 123 healthcare workers in a Thai hospital, compliance with the World Health Organization's "five moments" of hand hygiene was 23.2 percent by direct observation and 82.4 percent by self report. In a survey, the participants identified 11 barriers to compliance: 


•    I hurry/emergent patient conditions — 45.5 percent
•    I don't see any dirt/I think it's not dirty — 24.4 percent
•    I forget — 19.5 percent
•    I'm busy/too many patients — 15.4 percent
•    It is inconvenient — 13.8 percent
•    I don't care — 8.1 percent
•    I'm lazy — 5.7 percent
•    I wear gloves/no direct contact with patients — 4.9 percent
•    There are adverse effects of soap/cleanser — 4.9 percent
•    It wastes time — 4.1 percent
•    My hands are clean — 2.4 percent

These reasons may help guide future hand hygiene interventions, according to the study.

More Articles on Hand Hygiene:

Study: Only 23.2% Compliance Rate With WHO's 5 Moments of Hand Hygiene
5 Factors Associated With High Hand Hygiene Compliance

How to Maintain More Than 85% Hand Hygiene Compliance

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