A helping hand: Applying behavioural science and co-design methodology to improve hand hygiene compliance in the hospital setting

Compliance with hand hygiene is an effective way of reducing the incidence of healthcare acquired infections (HCAI). At one London National Health Service (NHS) Trust, improving hand hygiene compliance (HHC) was a patient safety priority in response to non-compliance and ongoing occurrences of HCAI. The objective of this study was to co-design a behavioural science informed intervention to improve HHC. To obtain a baseline level of HHC and understand associated behaviours, 18 hours of observation were undertaken on three inpatient wards. These focused upon Moment 1 and 5 of the World Health Organisation's moments for hand hygiene. The intervention was co-designed with clinical staff and took the form of "visual primes". Three different stickers designed to create a motivational "nudge" were placed at key points where HHC had been observed to fail. Following implementation, a further 18 hours of observation took place. A Chi-squared statistical analysis compared proportions of HHC pre- and post-intervention. Our intervention led to an 11% increase in HHC across the three study wards for both Moments (X2 (1, N = 1,285) = 13.711, p = <0.001) in the six weeks following the intervention. The intervention had a more marked effect on Moment 1, (with an increase of 15%, X2 (1, N = 667) = 17.091, p = <0.001 when compared to the change in compliance with Moment 5 (11%, X2 (1, N = 652) = 7.449, p = 0.06). This study demonstrated that utilising behavioural science in the co-design and placement of visual motivational nudges can significantly improve compliance with hand hygiene practices. We highlight the benefit of co-design when designing interventions-both in terms of engagement with and efficacy of the intervention.