Summary
Despite a lack of evidence the UK's Department of Health introduced a policy of ‘bare
below the elbows’ attire in order to try to reduce the incidence of nosocomial infection.
This study investigates the link between this state of dress and hand contamination.
A prospective observational study of doctors working in a district general hospital
was carried out. The fingertips of each hand were imprinted onto culture medium, and
resultant growth assessed for number of colony-forming units and presence of clinically
significant pathogens or multiply resistant organisms. These findings were correlated
with attire, grade, sex and specialty. Ninety-two doctors were recruited of whom 49
were ‘bare below the elbows’ compliant and 43 were not. There was no statistically
significant difference between those doctors who were ‘bare below the elbows’ and
those that were not, either for the number of colony-forming units or for the presence
of clinically significant organisms. No multiply resistant organisms were cultured
from doctors' hands. ‘Bare below the elbows’ attire is not related to the degree of
contamination on doctors' fingertips or the presence of clinically significant pathogens.
Further studies are required to establish whether investment in doctors' uniforms
and patient education campaigns are worthwhile.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 17, 2010
Accepted:
December 11,
2009
Received:
October 10,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 The Hospital Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
