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Study finds nurses wash their hands more than doctors

Nurse Leader Weekly, December 23, 2003

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Study finds nurses wash their hands more than doctors
Studies show health care workers who wash their hands frequently can reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections. Now, a researcher publishing in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal says that nurses pay more attention to personal hygiene in the surgery than doctors do.

Hand washing is a quick, cheap and easy way of preventing the spread of infection. Yet often medical staff fail to wash their hands between dealing with each patient, thereby risking the spread of infection.

Alan Stone, a general practitioner from Wales, carried out a study in a primary care surgery to determine which health care professionals wash their hands most often. Identical soap dispensers were installed next to the sink in each member's consulting room. The practice consisted of two nurses and three doctors. Each member of the team had his/her own sink. The soap dispensers were filled to the same level at the start of the study. After a year, the amount of soap used and the number of patient consultations was calculated. This was then used to work out the ratio of hand washes to patients seen.

Results of the study showed that nurses paid more attention to hand washing and personal hygiene than doctors did. The best performing nurse washed her hands either twice as often or twice as thoroughly as the best performing doctor. Of course, we don't know if this reflects hand washing practice around the country - but studies like this are easy to carry out, so perhaps others will look into their practice hygiene standards. If a little more soap is used in the surgery, the patient is less likely to pick up an infection.

Stone says, "These results will not necessarily reflect hand-washing practices in all teams but form a basis on which others may conduct similar audits. Nurses in this primary care team have shown greater attention to personal hygiene than doctors."

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