Tell me how pleased you are with your workplace, and I will tell you how often you wash your hands

Publication date: Available online 1 February 2017
Source:American Journal of Infection Control
Author(s): Liana Sholomovich, Racheli Magnezi
Hospital-acquired infections are the most common complication of treatment and the primary patient safety hazard. Hand hygiene (HH) is the most important tool for preventing these infections. Although thousands of research projects have been conducted, many articles written, and numerous therapeutic recommendations made, the goal has not yet been reached. The professional literature emphasizes that the reasons HH strategies fail are still only partially understood. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between the psychological safety of an organization's nursing staff and its sense of personal responsibility for avoiding transmission of infections. Questionnaires were distributed to the 400 nurses in a children's hospital. Nurses' psychological safety and sense of responsibility for transmitting infections were positively correlated (r = 0.425; P < .001). In addition, 209 respondents (95.7%) believe that transmission of resistant infections between patients is preventable and 74% agree that transmission of infections is the responsibility of the care staff, but only 40% were willing to take personal responsibility in the department in which they were employed. There is a correlation between nurses' psychological safety and sense of responsibility for transmitting infections. To increase workers' sense of personal responsibility regarding infections as a way to increase the response to HH, hospital management must work toward increasing workers' psychological safety.



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