Worku Asmamaw Deguale, Melaku Abayneh
Department of Water and Health, Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Department of Public Health Emergency Management, Addis Ababa Health Bureau, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Infect Prev Pract. 2025 Feb 28;7(2):100450. doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2025.100450. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Hand hygiene is an easy step to reduce healthcare-acquired infections, and improve patient safety. Major progress in facility accessibility was made during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and this led to greater adherence to hand hygiene practices. However, handwashing practices have now returned to the pre-COVID-19 era. Most of the studies that have investigated hand hygiene adherence are quantitative. As such, this study aimed to explore barriers to hand hygiene practice in the health centres of Kirkos and Akaki Kality sub-cities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Twenty-four healthcare professionals employed at the aforementioned health centres were interviewed using the key informant interview method. Data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis technique.
Based on the findings, there were three main categories of barriers to hand hygiene practice: barriers related to individuals (including three sub-categories: lack of knowledge and skill, improper attitude, and poor attention and negligence of healthcare workers); leadership barriers (including two sub-categories: lack of dedicated staff and low attention of leaders); and institutional barriers (including three sub-categories: inappropriate infrastructure and lack of resources, shortage of water, and high work load and staff turnover).
There were several reasons why hand hygiene guidance was not followed. Hand hygiene barriers can be minimized by displaying colour-coded notice boards, making washing facilities easily accessible, monitoring the availability of soap, offering training, and providing accurate evidence about the need to enhance hand hygiene.
手部卫生是降低医疗保健相关感染并提高患者安全的一项简单措施。在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间，医疗机构的可达性取得了重大进展，这导致对手部卫生措施的依从性更高。然而，现在洗手行为已回到COVID-19大流行前的时代。大多数调查手部卫生依从性的研究都是定量研究。因此，本研究旨在探讨埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴柯尔科斯和阿卡基卡利蒂次市的健康中心在手部卫生实践方面的障碍。
采用关键 informant 访谈法对上述健康中心的24名医护人员进行了访谈。使用定性内容分析技术对数据进行了分析。
根据研究结果，手部卫生实践存在三大类障碍：与个人相关的障碍（包括三个子类别：知识和技能缺乏、态度不当以及医护人员注意力不集中和疏忽）；领导障碍（包括两个子类别：缺乏专职人员和领导关注度低）；以及机构障碍（包括三个子类别：基础设施不合适和资源缺乏、缺水以及工作量大且人员流动率高）。
不遵守手部卫生指导有几个原因。通过展示颜色编码的布告栏、使洗手设施易于使用、监测肥皂的供应情况、提供培训以及提供关于加强手部卫生必要性的准确证据，可以将手部卫生障碍降至最低。
