Patient involvement may promote hand washing in the hospital

(HealthDay)—There is limited understanding of patients' and health care professionals' perceptions about appropriate patient involvement in promoting hand hygiene compliance in the hospital setting, according to a review published online Feb. 8 in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Mamdooh Alzyood, from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues identified studies published between January 2009 and July 2017 assessing patients' and health care professionals' perceptions of patient involvement in promoting hand hygiene compliance in the hospital setting. The authors conducted a thematic analysis of the results.

Based on 19 papers, the researchers found that patients were willing to remind health care professionals, especially nurses, to wash their hands. However, health care professionals' perception toward patient involvement varied from study to study. There was an overall positive attitude toward patient involvement depending on how patients asked and how health care professionals responded to being asked.

"Simple messages promoting patient involvement may lead to complex reactions in both patients and health care professionals. It is unclear yet how patients and staff react to such messages in clinical practice," the authors write. "There is a need for a deeper understanding of how they can work together to support harm free care."

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