Improving the hand hygiene technique of families in neonatal intensive care units

Anna Bordas

Fundació Institut Universitari per a la Recerca a l’Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina, Spain

Newborns in neonatal intensive care units are especially vulnerable to infections, and hand contact represents an important route of transmission. While healthcare professionals usually receive structured training in hand hygiene, family caregivers receive less training and feedback, despite their close and frequent contact with infants. The project aims to develop and evaluate a practical training programme that helps families take an active role in infection prevention.

Experts in neonatal care, infection prevention, patient safety and implementation research will develop a programme involving brief education, hands-on practice and immediate visual feedback using a fluorescent agent and UV imaging to help caregivers identify areas of the hands that are often missed. Automated image analysis will objectively measure how completely the hand surface is covered. The research team will assess whether the programme is feasible, acceptable and useful in routine care, and whether it improves the quality of hand hygiene technique.

The project could generate actionable evidence on improving infection prevention in neonatal care by strengthening families’ participation. If successful, the results of this pilot study could inform larger multicentre trials.

• Andreu Colom Cadena, Fundació Institut d’Investigació en Ciencies de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Spain

• Graciano Garcia Pardo, Fundació Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, Spain

A Family-Targeted Hand Hygiene Intervention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

€79.043,00