Knowledge of Australian registered nurses of the World Health Organization's 'My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene' (My5MHH) program : a cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

Hand hygiene is believed to be the single most important practice to prevent the spread of infection. The burden of healthcare associated infection in the Australian healthcare context is estimated to be 175,000 infections per year. Over a decade ago, the World Health Organization's (WHO) 'My five moments for hand hygiene' (My5MHH) program was implemented to address the issue of healthcare worker hand hygiene behavior. Given this program has been implemented over a decade ago, there has been no formal research study to address the question of: What is the level of Australian registered nurses' knowledge of the WHO My5MHH in a single health district? This is the first study in the Australian public healthcare setting to address this question. This study was conducted in 2017 across six acute public hospitals in a Local Health District located in Sydney, Australia. The aim of this research study was to determine the level of registered nurses' knowledge of the WHO My5MHH. Four objectives were identified: the first, to ascertain the level of knowledge of My5MHH across all wards and specialisms; second, to determine if professional characteristics have impacted on the level of knowledge; thirdly, to understand if various specialisms had different levels of knowledge; and finally, to ascertain if the length of time since mandatory hand hygiene education had an effect on knowledge. This study utilized a quantitative methodology, using a cross-sectional research design with the use of the WHO Hand Hygiene Questionnaire for Healthcare Workers (HHKQHW) to survey registered nurses and midwives. Six hundred completed surveys were returned. The vast majority were registered nurses, with a small number being registered midwives, and some holding dual nursing and midwifery registration. The mean age of registered nurses/midwives that participated was 38.57 years. The majority of registered nurses/midwives were female. It was apparent that level of education and professional category had no impact on My5MHH knowledge in registered nurses/midwives. Timing of formal My5MHH education appeared to have no impact on registered nurse's knowledge level on elements of the My5MHH program. The findings of this study demonstrated that the vast majority of registered nurses had poor results to the HHKQHWs which demonstrated a poor understanding of the My5MHH.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English