Table of ContentsIntroductionPromoting Hand HygieneImpact of Hand Hygiene in Nursing ConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionHospitals, Clinics, Nursing Homes, Schools and Other Institutions Nurses work in often struggle to prevent the spread of pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi. It has become clear that good hygiene is essential to prevent the spread of pathogens such as Clostridium difficile and Staphylococcus, as they can lead to life-threatening infections (Mody et al., 2008; Safi et al., 2018). Good hand hygiene is considered the cornerstone of infectious disease control in health care settings, as well as hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and other institutions that rely on good hand hygiene practices to protect their patients and themselves. Shockingly, research has found that only 50% of nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers practice proper hand hygiene in hospitals (Lydon et al., 2017). Nurses, compared to other healthcare providers, spend more face-to-face time with patients and therefore good hand hygiene is even more important to help reduce the rate of infection among patients. Based on research as well as personal observation while volunteering at a local hospital, many nurses seem to lose sight of the importance of good hand hygiene during the first few years of work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Promoting Hand Hygiene Various strategies have been used to attempt to improve good hand hygiene among nurses, nursing students, and other health care workers. For example, studies have compared the effectiveness of closed-circuit television monitors placed in patient rooms and intensive care units, direct observation by others, education on the importance of washing hands, location of dispensing units, etc. (e.g. Gould et al., 2017; Labrague et al., 2018; Livshiz-Riven et al., 2019; Pokrywka et al., 2017; Despite these efforts, hand hygiene compliance rates among nurses in the United States and around the world remain low (Chatfield et al., 2016; Waltman et al., 2011). For example, Biddle and Shah (2012) found that hand hygiene compliance rates. among nurses and other staff in the Department of Nurse Anesthesia at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, ranged from 7% to 34%. A study conducted in Iran found that among 94 nurses participating in 500 " clinical moments", the hand hygiene compliance rate was only 12.8%. Interestingly, this rate increased to 72% after exposure to the patient's bodily fluids (Mostafazadeh-Bora, Bahrami and Hosseini, 2018). This finding suggests that nurses are aware that certain situations are likely to be more dangerous for the spread of bacteria and that their behavior changes depending on the situation. It is possible that "hidden bacteria" that cannot be seen on hands appear less harmful to nurses and therefore are less likely to wash their hands in such situations. Impact of Hand Hygiene in Nursing Research has found that hand hygiene is a problem, 101(1), 108-113.