School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Midwifery, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.
J Hosp Infect. 2013 Nov;85(3):220-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2013.07.013. Epub 2013 Sep 6.
Hand hygiene compliance is the single most effective way to reduce healthcare-associated infections. Children are notoriously vulnerable to infection as well as acting as conduits to transmission. Based on these observations, the authors formulated the hypothesis that behavioural change which improved children's hand hygiene compliance would decrease the spread of infectious diseases.
To create an educational intervention to induce long-term behavioural change culminating in increased hand hygiene compliance of children, and thus a decrease in the rate of infections.
Focus groups conducted during interactive teaching sessions identified what children felt would help them to increase their hand hygiene compliance. This informed the design of an educational device that was subsequently trialled to measure its effectiveness in increasing hand hygiene compliance. Initial developmental stages were conducted in two schools in the East Midlands with study participants aged 5-8 years; the device was subsequently used in a healthcare setting to assess deployment flexibility.
Focus groups indicated that children enjoyed interactive learning, developed knowledge about cross-transmission of infections, and became motivated to encourage others to improve hand hygiene compliance. Microbiological swabbing verified the presence of pathogens on children's hands and environmental surfaces that could serve as reservoirs of infection, and questionnaires indicated an increase in handwashing following the intervention.
Educational interventions have the potential to increase hand hygiene and reduce the transmission of infections.
手部卫生合规是降低医疗机构相关感染的最有效方法。儿童极易受到感染，并且是传播的媒介。基于这些观察结果，作者提出了这样一个假设，即改善儿童手部卫生合规行为的改变将减少传染病的传播。
创建一种教育干预措施，以诱导长期行为改变，最终提高儿童的手部卫生合规率，从而降低感染率。
在互动教学环节中进行的焦点小组讨论确定了哪些因素有助于提高儿童的手部卫生合规性。这为教育工具的设计提供了信息，随后对其进行了试验，以评估其提高手部卫生合规性的效果。初始开发阶段在英格兰东部的两所学校进行，研究参与者年龄在 5-8 岁；随后该设备在医疗保健环境中使用，以评估其部署灵活性。
焦点小组表明，儿童喜欢互动式学习，对手部交叉感染的传播有了更多的了解，并受到激励去鼓励他人提高手部卫生合规性。微生物拭子检测证实了儿童手部和环境表面存在病原体，这些病原体可能成为感染源，调查问卷表明干预措施后洗手频率增加。
教育干预有潜力提高手部卫生水平并减少感染的传播。
