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HAND
HYGIENE
Which Advertising Strategy Prompts Hand
Hygiene Compliance Most?
By Shannon Barnet
A
lthough the attention on hand hygiene com-
pliance in healthcare settings has increased
in the past decade, little attention has been
paid to the type of messages used to promote hand
hygiene, according to a recent study published in the
American Journal of Infection Control.
Researchers led by Ronald E. Taylor, PhD, of
the University of Tennessee School of Advertising
and Public Relations in Knoxville, evaluated a total
of 86 healthcare workers to find out which types of
message strategies were easiest to understand, most
believable and most likely to lead to increased hand-
washing.
Dr. Taylor evaluated six message strategies,
including those that appeal to ego, social, sensory,
routine, acute need or ration. Of the six, the social
strategy — which suggests handwashing will win the
attention, approval, admiration, love and respect of
others — was the most likely to prompt increased
handwashing.
e study also revealed the sensory strategy —
which appeals to a person's five senses — was seen
not only as the least likely to improve hand hygiene
compliance, it was counterproductive.
"[Infection control preventionists] should add a
social message strategy to communication programs
promoting hand hygiene," concluded Dr. Taylor.
"Although further testing is needed, ego, routine and
acute need strategies show promise for tapping into
motivations that lead to improved compliance." n
Hospital Finds Hand
Hygiene Compliance
Goes Up After Eliminating
Mandatory Glove Use
By Max Green
L
ess may be more when it comes to hand
hygiene protocol, according to a study that
reports compliance rose at one facility aer it
dropped a rule declaring mandatory glove use for all
patient interactions.
e paper, published in the American Journal of
Infection Control, examined hand hygiene com-
pliance at a hospital in 2009 and again in 2012. In
the interim period, the hospital's rules regarding
mandatory glove use for all patient contact were
eliminated, and the researchers reported increases in
both patient-contact hand hygiene compliance and
overall hospital-wide hand hygiene compliance.
e authors concluded while further studies on
the effect the results may have on pathogen trans-
mission are needed, loosening the rules surrounding
mandatory use of gloves for all caregiver-patient
interactions did significantly raise hand hygiene
compliance. n
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