Five Moments for Hand Hygiene: A Study of Compliance among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in South East Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The concept of ‘Five Moments for Hand Hygiene’ described in the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, defines the key moments when health-care workers should perform hand hygiene in order to break the transmission of infectious organism via the hands. The concept stipulates that healthcare workers perform hand hygiene before touching and after touching a patient, before sterile or aseptic procedure, after touching patients’ environment and after exposure to blood or body fluids. Although hand hygiene is recognized as the most effective measure for preventing the transmission of infections in healthcare settings compliance with hand hygiene among Healthcare Workers (HCWs) remains unsatisfactory. Objective: To determine compliance with hand hygiene among healthcare workers based on the ‘five moments’ concept. Methodology: In this observational descriptive study, one hundred and fifty four HCWs in five randomly selected wards of a tertiary hospital were covertly observed for compliance with five moments for hand hygiene over a period of two weeks. Results: A total of 718 opportunities for hand hygiene were observed with an overall compliance of 23.5%. Compliance was highest after exposure to blood/body fluids (67.83%) and lowest before aseptic procedures (3.5%). It was 9.9%, 33.1% and 16.9%