Not all doctors want hand-washing reminders

Many doctors and nurses don't like the idea of patients reminding them to clean their hands, a new study from Switzerland suggests.

So-called hand hygiene has become a major goal of health care facilities around the world, and patients are often encouraged to become involved in system-wide changes to promote hand washing, researchers said.

"Hand hygiene is the primary measure to prevent infections and cross-transmission (of bacteria and viruses) at the point of care," said Dr. Didier Pittet, the senior researcher on the new study from the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine.

The findings shouldn't discourage patients from bringing up the topic, he added.

"Patients should know and ideally should remind their health care workers about the importance of hand hygiene, especially right before they are going to touch them," said Pittet, who also leads a hand hygiene campaign at the World Health Organization.

Previous research has shown doctors and nurses are much more likely to wash up when video systems monitor their compliance and send them feedback (see Reuters Health story of November 30, 2011.)

Why Hand Washing Is Important for Preschoolers If you've spent any time around preschoolers, you may have noticed that they have an unbelievable ability to get messy. Preschoolers may need reminders to wash their hands after doing art projects, playing outdoors, eating and using the toilet. Children this age often will not wash their hands thoroughly enough, so supervise them to make sure they've used enough soap and scrubbed every part of their hands.

How to Encourage Hand Washing

Research studies indicate that 1 in 3 people do not wash their hands after using the bathroom, and health care workers fail to wash their hands properly over 50 percent of the time. These statistics are alarming because hand washing is an easy, effective way to prevent the spread of disease. It is important to wash your hands after using the bathroom; after sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose; before and after eating; before and after preparing food (especially if you are working with raw meat); after handling pets, pet waste and garbage; after spending time with a sick or injured individual; and after touching any public surface (door handles, copy machines). Several guidelines can encourage people to wash their hands more frequently.

Switching from soap and water to an alcohol-based hand rub also makes regular hand hygiene much more feasible, as long as hand-sanitizing stations are located in patient rooms and not only in the hallway, Pittet said.

For the new study, he and his colleagues sent surveys to 700 doctors and nurses at the University of Geneva Hospitals - and got responses back from 227 of them.

Just under one-third of the health care workers said they didn't like the idea of being reminded to wash their hands by patients, because they thought it could be upsetting or humiliating. And 37 percent said they wouldn't consent to wearing a badge encouraging patients to ask them about hand hygiene.