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dries faster but has a higher alcohol content and is harsher on the skin than the one that's softer on the skin but takes longer to dry. "It takes a while to rub that one in," she says. "Some doctors don't like to have to wait for their hands to dry."
If they like it, they'll use it
Let's see — wait a few seconds for your hands to dry, or suffer dry, chapped, itchy skin? There's no clear-cut answer because convenience and hand-hygiene compliance go hand in hand. If your surgeons' hands are red and burning from dermatitis, compliance with handwashing regulations will plummet as they avoid exposure to the irritants causing the problem.
"Yes, they're directly related," says Rene Bates, RN, BSN, clinical improvement manager at the Knoxville (Tenn.) Orthopaedic Surgery Center. "If they like the product and don't mind using it, they seem to be more apt to do hand hygiene when it's most appropriate."
Ms. Bates trialed 3 alcohol-based hand rubs before settling on the one that her team liked most and disliked least. Since the center opened in 2009, they'd been using a foam rub that "nobody was really a big fan of and several people hated," she says. "It caused some hands to crack and people didn't like the smell. It wasn't a fresh, clean smell. You can imagine our compliance rate."
They switched to a store-bought gel, but folks quickly complained of dry, cracked hands. The only positive review was that the gel didn't leave a slimy feeling — "probably because it didn't have any emollients," jokes Ms. Bates. There were more complaints when they switched to another foaming hand rub that left hands feeling slimy and smelling musty. They brought in another gel for a trial that wasn't perfect, but was certainly passable. "I couldn't find anybody to say
anything bad about it, except that it smelled like alcohol and the
