The role of managers in promoting good hand hygiene in a Finnish tertiary care hospital

Little is known about how managers promote good hand hygiene (HH) practice. • We investigated the challenges managers encounter when promoting good HH practice. • HH remains an unaccustomed aspect of the several roles carried out by busy managers. • Compliance with good HH is difficult to control from a manager ' s perspective. • Managers would benefit from information communication technology (ICT) applications. Hospital managers play an essential role in implementing strategies to promote good hand hygiene (HH) among health care workers. We investigated the managers ' views on their roles, challenges and developmental ideas in promoting good HH practice. A descriptive cross-sectional study with an online survey of both medical and nursing managers was conducted within a single tertiary care hospital in Finland. Three open-ended questions were analyzed using inductive content analysis. A total of 78 managers out of 168 responded to the survey (response rate 46%). Managers helped promote HH practices by enabling the proper environment for adherence to good HH, visible commitment, and using various means to instruct staff about HH. Challenges included the acute hospital setting and practical problems related to the managers ' numerous responsibilities. Developmental ideas included information communication technology applications for monitoring HH as an indicator of the quality of care, versatile responses to HH audits, and clarifying the roles of different management ...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news