The Rise and Fall of COVID- Era Hand Hygiene Compliance
By Kelly M . Pyrek
One of the surprising findings coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic is that hand hygiene – touted as one of the most important interventions of the response to the crisis – initially peaked but was not sustained during this public health challenge at many healthcare institutions .
Kong , et al . ( 2021 ) said it best when they observed , “ As simple as it may be , hand hygiene is an ongoing challenge worldwide with suboptimal compliance in spite of multiple initiatives to increase adherence .”
Reflecting what has been reported widely in the medical literature , the World Health Organization ( 2009 ) indicates that healthcare personnel adherence to hand hygiene before the COVID-19 pandemic has been reported to fall in the 5 percent to 89 percent range , with an overall average of 38.7 percent .
Gon , et al . ( 2020 ) acknowledged what many had been thinking at the onset of the pandemic : “ Healthcare workers are able to prioritize patient needs when providing routine care . However , the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced significant uncertainty into the care environment and thus workflow , including timing of necessary procedures , anticipating and managing patient volumes , and rapidly evolving guidelines on patient management .
As simple as it may be , hand hygiene is an ongoing challenge worldwide with suboptimal compliance in spite of multiple initiatives to increase adherence .”
During this crisis , hand hygiene , along with other infection control activities , may be compromised , not because it is not a priority but because staff may be too busy or uncertain on how to implement hand hygiene in this outbreak setting .”
Experts have been asking if one legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic might be a beneficial effect on hand hygiene compliance by healthcare personnel .
As Prescott , et al . ( 2021 ) state , “ We need to be sure that pre-pandemic standards of hand hygiene compliance are sustained or improved , and that hand hygiene does not become perceived as less of a priority in busy hospitals where healthcare workers may feel that their personal safety has been improved by immunization .” They add , “ We cannot assume that the pandemic will change the attitudes of most healthcare workers to hand hygiene … Unfortunately , the limited data available so far suggest that the experience of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic will not revolutionize their attitudes toward hand hygiene . Robust and longer-term clinical- and cost-effectiveness studies are required to allow a full assessment of the impact of interventions that improve hand hygiene , and to show that any benefits are sustainable . Most hand hygiene studies to date have used only
www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com • may 2022
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