Article Text

Download PDFPDF
PA.01 Successful implementation of WHO hand hygiene strategy in a Ugandan obstetric unit
  1. K MacLeod,
  2. D Khairudin
  1. Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust, Warrington, UK

Abstract

Worldwide, one death in three is from an infectious or communicable disease. Almost all these deaths occur in resource poor countries. Hand washing may be one of the most cost effective means of preventing infection in this area. The World Health Organisation (WHO) developed a concept called ‘My five moments for hand hygiene’. This designated moments when hand hygiene was required and provided tools to facilitate education and minimise inter-individual variation.

We introduced a hand hygiene strategy in a Ugandan Obstetric Unit with 7000 deliveries a year. We formed a hand hygiene committee to facilitate education and give performance feedback. Sinks were installed to improve sink to bed ratio and reminders were posted in the clinical areas. WHO observation forms were used to collect data and perform compliance calculations.

294 opportunities for hand hygiene were recorded. Overall compliance rose from 22.4% to 47.6% following implementation (p < 0.05). Interns and midwives showed the biggest overall improvement in hand hygiene.

Improving hand hygiene is effective and achievable in resource poor settings.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.