ABSTRACT
Following the rules of hand hygiene with the proper technique is one of the easiest and most efficient ways of preventing health care related infections. The research was conducted with the aim of investigating the hand washing behaviors in the intensive care units (ICU).
Data for this retrospective and descriptive study was collected between January 2017-April 2018 by the infection control unit of the hospital by observing the hand washing behaviors at the ICUs between 09.00-12.00 and recording these observations to the “Hand Hygiene Observation Form”.
A total of 924 hand washes were observed for the research and it was detected that nurses had the highest number of hand washing (n=572, 61.90%). According to the Five Hand Washing Indications, hand washing was performed mostly after making contact with the patients (n=337, 36.5%). The rate of hand washing before aseptic procedures was significantly higher among nurses (n=86, 9.31%) compared to other healthcare teams (n=19, 2.06%) (p<0.05).
It was identified that hand washing rates at the ICUs were unsatisfactory according to the Five Hand Washing Indications. It is recommended that barriers to hand washing in these units should be investigated and programs to adjust hand hygiene should be developed and maintained.
Keywords: Hand hygiene, hand washing indication, health care team, intensive care unit