Barreiras à adesão à higiene das mãos

: a perceção dos profissionais de saúde

Abstract

Background: This study discusses the work in the field of Hand Hygiene in health units developed mostly after the accession of Portugal to the Hand Hygiene Campaign in 2008, with the compliance of only 64%. This study attempts to understand the reasons why some healthcare professionals do not adhere to the Hand Hygiene protocol. Methods: The literature review identified five types of barriers (Materials & Equipment, Education & Practice, Assessment & Feedback, Information & Warning Systems and Leadership & Organizational Climate) after which we conducted a Delphi Panel to ascertain the level of agreement of experts with the identified barriers and their weight or importance. After validation we developed a quantitative, cross-sectional, analytic and correlational study in a sample of 306 healthcare professionals. Results: The BAHM scale validated in this study revealed good psychometric characteristics. The barrier Education & Practice was considered by our sample as the barrier with least importance whereas the barrier Leadership & Formal Alerts was the one that healthcare professionals attributed greater importance. The men perceived more barriers than women and the tendency as age and time of service increased, the perception barrier decreased in terms of the total scale and factor - Materials & Equipment. The doctors were the professional category that most perceived barriers and nurses the least. Professionals who work in inpatient units perceived fewer barriers than in outpatient healthcare professionals. Conclusions: More than Education & Practice, were issues related to Leadership & Formal Alerts the most perceived barrier. The scale BAHM can be effective in identifying the types of perceived barriers and implement more effective strategies for the healthcare professionals to Hand Hygiene compliance.

Date of Award	Oct 2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro João Soares Gaspar (Supervisor)