Effects of Knowledge and Internal Locus of Control in Groups of Health Care Workers Judging Likelihood of Pathogen Transfer

Abstract

Objective:

A study was conducted to measure the effects of attitudes and beliefs on the risk judgments of health care workers.

Background:

Lack of hand hygiene compliance is a worldwide issue in health care, contributing to infections, fatalities, and increased health care costs. Human factors methods are a promising solution to the problem of compliance, although thus far, the concentration has been on process and engineering methods, such as the design of no-touch sinks. Factors internal to the health care worker, such as their attitudes and beliefs about hand hygiene, have received less attention.

Method:

For this study, three groups of health care workers completed measures of attitudes, control beliefs, and hand hygiene knowledge. They then provided risk judgments of touching various surfaces via a factorial survey.

Results:

Attitudes, knowledge, control beliefs, and surface type all predicted the risk judgments of the sample of health care workers, with differences between professional groups.

Conclusion:

Health care workers perceive less risk when touching surfaces, which may explain historically low rates of hand hygiene compliance after surface contact.

Application:

Although more research is needed to directly connect risk judgments to failures of hand hygiene, the current results can inform interventions targeting the internal attitudes and beliefs of health care workers.