Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan K H(1), Cheng M Y(1), Cheung C M(1), Cheung T H(2), Kung Y C(2), Tai Y W(2), Yip C S(2)
Affiliation :
(1)Accident and Emergency Department in Pok Oi Hospital, (2)Accident and Emergency Department in Tuen Mun Hospital
Introduction :
Hand hygiene is the simplest and best way to prevent transmission of infectious disease in
Clinical areas. Some research worldwide suggested a simplified 3 steps hand hygiene
technique which shortens the hand hygiene time is effective as a bacterial infection compared
with the 6 steps WHO technique. A study was conducted in the A&E of Pok Oi Hospital
andTuen Mun Hospital.
Objectives :
The study was to compare the effectiveness of 3 different hand washing methods (7 steps
technique by CHP with 20 sec rubbing time; 7 steps CHP technique with 15 sec rubbing
time; 3 step hand hygiene technique with 15 sec rubbing time) on hand coverage and
reduction of fluorescence stain (represent the bacteria) on the hands. The effectiveness was
determined by comparison of the size of fluorescent stain retained on hands.
Methodology :
The design was a crossover randomized controlled trial study. 56 A&E nurses in two A&E of
hospitals were recruited. All participants performed 3 different hand washing methods to
clean the fluorescence stain on their hands. Photos of hands were taken in a dark box with
UV light. Areas of the stain in the photos were calculated with the “SketchAndCalc”
application. For calculation of inferential statistics, SPSS version 26 was used.
Result & Outcome :
The primary objective was to compare the effectiveness of 3 different hand washing methods.
Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test indicated no significant differences between the 3-step method
(method 3) (median = 0.830) and CHP 7-step 20 second method (method 1) (median =
0.685), Z = -0.870, p = 0.384. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between
the method 3 (mean rank = 27.69), and CHP 7-step 15 second method (method 2) (median =
1.080), Z = -0.223, p = 0.823.
