Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Improving Hand Hygiene In A Rural Critical Access Hospital, Katherine H. Miller

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Hand hygiene adherence is the single most important infection control practice among healthcare workers in United States hospitals. Hand hygiene is cost effective and adherence to protocols can reduce hospital acquired infections and employee illness. While hand hygiene adherence has been shown through research to improve patient safety and reduce hospital acquired infections, adherence to hand hygiene protocols among healthcare workers is poor and improvement efforts lack sustainability. A potential barrier to performing hand hygiene includes failure of healthcare workers to realize they are carrying microbes on their hands and what proper hand hygiene is, whether using soap and water …