Major articleRole of a multimodal educational strategy on health care workers' handwashing

- Overall hand hygiene compliance rates for health care workers increased from 51.3% to 98.6% using a multimodal approach using the World Health Organization's My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene methodology, posters, and standardized measuring tools.
- Using the World Health Organization's Perception Survey and Follow-up Perception Survey demonstrated health care workers felt the use of the multimodal interventions helped to increase their awareness and knowledge of the importance hand hygiene compliance plays in the prevention of health care-associated infections.
- Comparing 3 professional categories of participants in the study for hand hygiene compliance demonstrated physicians have the lowest compliance both pre- and poststudy.

BackgroundGood hand hygiene is the single most important strategy used to prevent health care-associated infections (HAIs); however, health care workers' (HCWs') hand hygiene compliance rates range between 25% and 51%. This study aims to determine if a multimodal strategy using the World Health Organization's (WHO's) My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene methodology increases HCWs' compliance with handwashing and awareness of the importance of good hand hygiene in the prevention of HAIs.MethodsA quasi-experimental, 1-group pre-post survey design was used to test awareness and knowledge. A simple interrupted time series methodology at baseline and 3 months was used to monitor hand hygiene compliance.ResultsOverall, HCWs' hand hygiene compliance increased from 51.3% to 98.6%, with an odds ratio of 71.10. The pre-post survey demonstrated HCWs were aware and knowledgeable of the importance of good hand hygiene. Eight postsurvey questions focusing on the strategies used to promote hand hygiene demonstrated statistical significance using a 1-sample t test, with P values ranging from .000-.024.ConclusionA multimodal approach using the WHO's My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene does increase HCWs' hand hygiene compliance and awareness and knowledge of the importance of hand hygiene in the prevention of HAIs. Using this approach can produce a positive social change by reducing preventable disease and decreasing HAIs not only within a facility but also in the community.