Empowering patients in the hospital as a new approach to reducing the burden of health care-associated infections: The attitudes of hospital health care workers

Although the World Health Organization has recommended that patients have a role in encouraging hand hygiene as a means of preventing infection, patient engagement remains an underused method. By extending the concept of patient empowerment to a range of infection prevention opportunities, the positive impact of this intervention will not only extend to the patient but to the system itself.