Impact of hand hygiene training module among healthcare providers working in neonatal intensive care unit: A before and after trial

Abstract

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) include central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Maintaining strict hand hygiene (HH) compliance and asepsis is pivotal in reducing the HAI. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of a training module on HH practices of healthcare providers (HCPs) working in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: An uncontrolled before and after study was conducted in a tertiary level NICU of a government hospital. All HCPs working in the NICU were eligible and included in the analyses. In the pre-intervention Phase I (November–December 2016) and in the post-intervention Phase II (February–March
2017), trained HH auditors noted the HH compliance of all HCPs. All HCPs were trained in HH practices using the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals SAFE-I Hospital infection control training module, and then, HH compliance was compared in both the phases. HH compliance rates were measured among HCP at the end of each phase. Results: Overall HH compliance rates improved significantly in phase II when compared with phase I (97% and 77%, respectively, p=0.0001). Conclusion: Maintaining high HH compliance in an intensive care setting is challenging; therefore, adopting training modules to educate HCPs significantly improves HH compliance rates.