Back
Hand hygiene is a critical and the cheapest method for the prevention of infections and providing safe care in healthcare facilities. Despite increasing evidence that healthcare institutions are the major source of several healthcare-acquired infections, published data on the World Health Organization’s Five Moments of Hand Hygiene Compliance and adherence in dialysis facilities are scarce. Literature has shown that hand hygiene standards at the point of care remain suboptimal globally. The review aimed to assess compliance with the World Health Organization's Five moments of hand hygiene in dialysis facilities.
A systematic review of electronic searches was conducted on Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. The review of articles was screened for studies published between 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2023. Only research conducted in dialysis facilities, published in English, and involving dialysis practitioners such as nurses, medical doctors, and clinical technologists were considered.
The initial phase of the review comprised 68 published studies. After analysing all the 68 studies, only 8 were eligible for inclusion criteria. Â Compliance levels appeared to differ in the current review. We found hand hygiene compliance of between 0% and 94% across studies. All of the studies (100%) were observational. Despite available evidence on hand hygiene and its benefits in infection prevention, the current analysis identified gaps in compliance, raising concerns about the safety of dialysis patients, relatives, and healthcare practitioners.
Noncompliance with hand hygiene requirements is a global issue requiring more emphasis on WHO guidelines and research measures. There is a need for more research on hand hygiene in dialysis facilities. This data may offer useful indicators for those managing dialysis facilities to improve hand hygiene compliance.