The importance of hand hygiene in the radiography department

Abstract

Hand hygiene is the simplest, widely acknowledged and most effective measurement for preventing cross-infection in a hospital setting. However, research demonstrates that although the spread of infectious diseases in hospitals has been recognized for many years, understanding how to prevent hospital-acquired infections and implementing policies are still being ignored by most of health care workers, including radiographers (Morison, 1992; Gilmour and Hughes, 1997; Parker, 1999). Many barriers, which contributes to poor hand hygiene compliance among health care workers have been reported, which are mainly under staffing, lack of time, inconvenient placements of hand washing facilities or not enough supplies and inappropriate products that have an adverse effect on the skin (Pittet and Boyce, 2001; Thompson et al., 1997; Gilmour and Hughes, 1997). This study attempted to describe the local situation, where radiographers' behaviour was addressed. A sample of 46 radiographers consented to participate in this study, all of whom were qualified radiographers of different age and sex groups. Each radiographer was given a questionnaire to complete in a stipulated time frame. Findings suggest the need of education and increased motivation amongst Maltese radiographers in order to enhance practice of hand hygiene. Moreover, hand hygiene facilities such as alcohol-based hand rub dispensers, should be installed in strategic places throughout the imaging department in order to make hand hygiene more convenient and less time consuming.