WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care - Safe Care ...

PART IV. TOWARDS A GENERAL MODEL OF CAMPAIGNING FOR BETTER HAND HYGIENE – A NATIONAL APPROACH TO HAND HYGIENE IMPROVEMENT
1.
Introduction
<strong>Guidelines</strong> do not implement themselves, 1057 and simple dissemination strategies have been described as
unlikely to have any impact at all on implementation. 1058,1059 Health-care policy-makers and strategists have
therefore looked towards nationally coordinated and centralized health improvement programmes as an
acknowledged method of tackling significant health-related problems. National programmes do not necessarily
employ campaign approaches; however, national health improvement programmes have been shown in many
cases to use elements of campaigning and mass media involvement to good effect. This part reviews the
increasing shift towards national hand hygiene improvement programmes, with or without campaigning, as a
method of spreading hand hygiene improvement strategies in health care. 1060 It concludes with an account of
current national hand hygiene improvement programmes, drawing on the progress made by them and lessons
learnt from the countries that have embarked on such an approach. Based on the experiential learning and the
current literature, a blueprint is presented for developing, implementing, and evaluating a national hand hygiene
improvement campaign within health care.
2.
Objectives
The present guidelines recommend a multifaceted system and behaviour change intervention as the most
reliable method to improve hand hygiene in health care. To accompany the guidelines and aid implementation
at a local level, a comprehensive Guide to Implementation and a suite of facilitative tools have been developed.
This part is concerned with how to develop a successful improvement programme at a national level that will
aid in implementation at a local level. It reviews the literature on national health improvement programmes and
campaigns and explores the applicability of such an approach in relation to hand hygiene. Behaviour change
interventions in the health-care context are increasingly utilizing the popular media within an integrated campaign
framework and this has been shown to have numerous benefits, not least in terms of cost–effectiveness. 1061
The background, risks, and benefits of national approaches to hand hygiene improvement are described
within the context of general public health or health improvement campaigning. This part further highlights
the developments of national hand hygiene improvement campaigns in the time period since the launch of the
<strong>WHO</strong> First GlobalPatientSafetyChallenge, and the publication of the 2006 Advanced Draft of the guidelines, and
concludes by presenting a blueprint for national campaigns.
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