Nurses are more diligent about hospital hand hygiene than doctors, according to international research by an Australian professor.
The research shows health workers are endangering patients by missing one in three opportunities to wash their hands, and doctors are the worst performers, says co-author Professor Mary-Louise McLaws.
Although Australian doctors escaped scrutiny in the five-country study, Prof McLaws says they are missing too many hygiene opportunities.
"Australia should be way beyond our current compliance rate of 65 per cent in doctors. Hand hygiene is a fundamental clinical practice that must be practised without excuses."
Australia is one of the 168 countries that have implemented World Health Organisation guidelines, which Prof McLaws of the University of New South Wales helped draft.
The study, published in the journal Lancet Infections, is aimed at assessing performance after 24 months.
It shows overall compliance has improved from 51 per cent to 67 per cent.
Despite the success, there are a number of problems, says Prof McLaws, who believes the next challenge is to change entrenched poor behaviour in some people.
Of the study countries, Mali is the only one where doctors are more compliant than nurses.
The other countries are Costa Rica, Italy, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
