Effectiveness of hand-washing teaching programs for families of children in paediatric intensive care units.
OBJECTIVE
The authors developed a video-centred teaching program based on social learning principles to demonstrate hand-washing technique. A comparison was made between families who viewed the video and families who were taught the same techniques with the aid of an illustrated poster in terms of compliance and improvement in hand-washing skills.


BACKGROUND
Nosocomial infections are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in paediatric intensive care unit patients. Hand hygiene is considered the most important preventive action against hospital-acquired infections. A number of studies have shown that increased compliance with hand-washing guidelines for health-care workers leads to decreases in nosocomial infection rates. Furthermore, recommendations have been made to ensure that parents who visit their children in intensive care units wash their hands first.


METHODS
Quasi-experimental time series. Compliance and accuracy measurements were collected during one to five visits following the initial teaching intervention.


METHODS
A total of 123 families, who visited paediatric intensive care units, were recruited and assigned to two groups - one experimental (61 families) and the other a comparison group (62). Participants in the comparison group were taught hand-washing skills using simple illustrations. A 20-item hand-washing checklist was used to examine hand-washing compliance and accuracy.


RESULTS
No significant differences were noted in terms of demographics between the two groups. Results from a general estimated equation analysis showed that families in the experimental group had higher compliance and accuracy scores at statistically significant levels.


CONCLUSIONS
The video-based teaching program was effective in increasing compliance and accuracy with a hand-washing policy among families with children in intensive care units.


CONCLUSIONS
The education program is a simple, low-cost, low technology intervention for substantially reducing the incidence of nosocomial infection.
Chen
Yong-Chuan
YC
Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chiang
Li-Chi
LC
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006235:Hand Disinfection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D008297:Male; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011588:Psychology, Educational; D013624:Taiwan; D013663:Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000592:standards