Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have been among the leading threats to patient safety, affecting one out of every 25 patients. More than 1.7 million patients acquired hospital infections, resulting in some 99,000 deaths annually. HAIs were responsible for adding billions of dollars to health care costs. Fortunately, most HAIs are preventable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization recognize proper hand hygiene as a primary means of preventing HAI. Unfortunately, compliance rates of less than 50% of basic hand hygiene practices were woefully low. HH is the task that healthcare workers perform the most throughout daily activities of patient care. HCWs, such as nurses, provide the most interactions with patients. Therefore, cross-contamination was considered more highly transmitted by nurses than by any other HCWs. All personnel working on a unit/floor in the hospital or healthcare setting can be a mode of transmission for contributing to nosocomial infections. The single most important deterrent from HAIs is avoidance through practicing HH. The objectives for this project are to establish a baseline readiness for embracing principles of EBP from the staff employed in the psychiatric extended observation unit facility and to observe and describe changes to HH practices pre- and post-implementation of a 90-minute evidence based HH in-service that reinforces the World Health Organization’s 5-points of care.
