Health Care Staff, Change Their Hygiene Behavior When Under Observation

Hand hygiene is something that everyone from a common man to a health care practitioner should follow. However, people tend to ignore hand hygiene when they are not looked upon by someone.

A new study conducted by a team of researchers from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) in San Jose, California, has found that health care staff tends to ignore hand hygiene when no one is around. In particular, they tend to be extra careful about hygiene when they are under observation or when their behavior is being noticed by someone else.

According to the team, the hand hygiene practice differs among the health care practitioners when they are being evaluated against when they are not. In a way, the study shows that human behavior is one of the toughest things to change.

During the study, the researchers used two types of investigators. The first group of investigators had infection prevention nurses, while the second group had students of high school of college age.

The researchers noticed that both the groups differed in their opinion. The infection prevention nurses showed greater compliance, since they are often considered as "hygiene patrols" in the hospitals.

However, a deeper look into their behavior confirmed the Hawthorne effect. According to Lisa Hansford, an infection prevention nurse at SCVMC, when nurses and other practitioners know that someone is looking at them, they tend to follow the hand hygiene procedure more strictly. For example, they would make sure that they use alcohol while cleaning their hands.

But when they are not being monitored, they would not prefer to use alcohol. The study acts as a reminder that everyone at the hospital should follow proper hand hygiene.

The researchers encourage the patients to tell their doctors and nurses to sanitize their hands and clean them properly before and after they examine a patient or use some sought of drug or equipment.