Five Moments for Hand Hygiene: A Study of Compliance among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in South East Nigeria

The concept of 'Five Moments for Hand Hygiene' described in the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, defines the key moments when health-care workers should perform hand hygiene in order to break the transmission of infectious organism via the hands. The concept stipulates that healthcare workers perform hand hygiene before touching and after touching a patient, before sterile or aseptic procedure, after touching patients' environment and after exposure to blood or body fluids. Although hand hygiene is recognized as the most effective measure for preventing the transmission of infections in healthcare settings compliance with hand hygiene among Healthcare Workers (HCWs) remains unsatisfactory.