Abstract
his study aimed to seek patient opinion on being asked to participate in a campaign to improve staff compliance with handwashing and to identify factors that may influence the likelihood of patients asking staff to wash their hands.
A descriptive survey of 200 patients (150 participants, response rate 75 per cent) about to be discharged from an acute NHS Trust was completed. The age, gender, previous experience, opinions and personality traits of participants were explored. The results showed that 118 (79 per cent) thought they should be involved in helping staff improve hand hygiene and that extraversion was the only personality trait with a significant association with this tendency of wanting to be involved. Age was a significant factor in how likely participants were to ask different groups of staff and how they would feel about asking, with older people being more reluctant. Participants valued measures that facilitated them asking — staff wearing badges was the most popular of these.
Groups of patients in this and other studies (National Patient Safety Agency, 2004) indicate that patients want to be involved in helping to improve hand hygiene. In practice, we need to acknowledge the complex nature of involving individuals in challenging staff to improve their own care, and also that hand hygiene is ultimately the responsibility of health professionals.
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