Health care workers´ compliance with hand hygiene regulations: Positive effects of a poster

Health care workers in nursing homes do not always comply with hand hygiene regulations, such as not wearing jewelry. Non-compliance with these regulations is a threat to patients´ safety. We did two studies to investigate if compliance could be improved by a poster that reminds health care workers of the regulations. The primary aim of the studies was to measure the effects of a poster´s textual (plain, unambiguous written message or pun) and visual features (incongruent or congruent picture) on health care workers´ attention to the poster, their attitude towards the poster, their comprehension of the message, and their compliance. Both studies were conducted in a natural setting at a care organization. In total, 193 health care workers participated. The results of the first study showed that a poster with a plain written message and a congruent picture has the most favorable effects on compliance. The results of the second study showed no differences between a poster with a pun and with one with an explicit message; both have favorable effects on compliance. Overall, these results indicate that health care workers do not process the posters very deeply, but that they use them as a prompt to compliance.