Monitoring hand hygiene adherence in an intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective: To characterize health professionals’ adherence to hand hygiene procedure. Method: This cross-sectional study with the multidisciplinary team of an intensive care unit at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro was conducted between January and February 2017. Data were collected in 165 direct observations using an adapted form, and analyzed by R software. The project was approved by the research ethics committee. Results: The gold standard (hand hygiene before and after contact with the patient using the correct technique) was achieved in 13% of the observations. All categories of health personnel performed hand hygiene more after contact with the patient. Conclusion: The rate of adherence to hand hygiene by health professionals was low. However, the category that most hygienized hands before and after contact with patients, using the correct technique, was nurses.