• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Nurses wash their hands twice as much as physicians, study shows

Infection Control Monitor, January 2, 2004

A new study indicates physicians do not wash their hands enough between patient encounters, despite studies that suggest washing will reduce a patient's risk of a health care-acquired infection.

A researcher placed identical liquid soap dispensers next to sinks in the consulting rooms of a primary care surgical unit at a hospital in the United Kingdom. Unit members, including two nurses and three doctors, had their own sink. Each soap dispenser was filled to the same level on the same day at the start of the study. Researcher Alan Stone, MD, recorded the levels of soap the clinicians used in each dispenser for one year. All but one team member were blind to the study. A simple calculation provided the ratio of patients seen to the amount of soap used in each dispenser.

The result: "Nursing staff showed greater attention to personal hygiene than doctors," wrote Stone. In fact, the best performing nurse was twice as conscientious as the best performing physician.

For example, Dr. A saw 3,507 patients and washed her hands 577 times, yielding a handwashing-to-patient ratio of 1:6. Nurse E saw 2,620 patients and washed her hands 1,346 times, yielding a handwashing-to-patient ratio of 1:2.

The study, published in the latest issue of BMJ (Vol. Volume 327, pp 1453-4), doesn't necessarily reflect the handwashing practices of all health care providers, but does provide a model that other hospitals can use to conduct similar audits, Stone says.

"These results would support the best performing nurse washing the hands at least twice as often (or twice as thoroughly) as the best performing doctor. At the Christmas party, guess who will be serving the cake..."

For more information, click here.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive