Health care workers' compliance with hand hygiene regulations: Positive effects of a poster

Abstract

Health care workers in nursing homes do not always comply with hand hygiene regulations, such as not wearing jewelry. Non-compliance with these regulations is a threat to patients' safety. We did two studies to investigate if compliance could be improved by a poster that reminds health care workers of the regulations. The primary aim of the studies was to measure the effects of a poster's textual (plain, unambiguous written message or pun) and visual features (incongruent or congruent picture) on health care workers' attention to the poster, their attitude towards the poster, their comprehension of the message, and their compliance. Both studies were conducted in a natural setting at a care organization. In total, 193 health care workers participated. The results of the first study showed that a poster with a plain written message and a congruent picture has the most favorable effects on compliance. The results of the second study showed no differences between a poster with a pun and with one with an explicit message; both have favorable effects on compliance. Overall, these results indicate that health care workers do not process the posters very deeply, but that they use them as a prompt to compliance.