Educational technologies for teaching hand hygiene: Systematic review

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 1; p. e0294725
• Main Authors: Fernandes, Daiane Rubinato, Santos, Bruna Nogueira Dos, Guimarães, Carolina Scoqui, Ferreira, Elaine Barros, Margatho, Amanda Salles, Reis, Paula Elaine Diniz Dos, Pittet, Didier, Silveira, Renata Cristina de Campos Pereira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16-01-2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Compliance; Computer and Information Sciences; Computer applications; Content analysis; Editorials; Educational aspects; Educational innovations; Educational technology; Electronic equipment; Electronic games; Engineering and Technology; Evaluation; Grey literature; Hand washing; Health aspects; Health care; Health care reform; Health education; Hispanic Americans; Hospitals; Hygiene; Infection control; Infections; Intensive care; Learning; Learning strategies; Libraries; Medical electronics; Medical personnel; Medicine and Health Sciences; Meta-analysis; Patients; Pediatrics; Personal hygiene; Populations; Prevention; Professionals; Quantitative research; Reading; Research and Analysis Methods; Research methodology; Sensory integration; Social Sciences; Systematic review; Teaching methods; Virtual reality; Brazil; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294725

To gather available scientific evidence on technologies used to teach hand hygiene to professional populations and lays involved in health care in the hospital setting. This systematic review was designed as proposed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, included studies reporting primary, original, quantitative research findings with no date limit and written in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The search was performed in the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Excerpta Medica dataBASE, Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde, US National Library of Medicine, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and ProQuest. The eligibility criteria were applied independently by two reviewers to select the studies, first by reading the titles and abstracts on the Rayyan platform and then by full text reading of the eligible studies. After a descriptive analysis, the studies were subjected to critical evaluation of their methodological quality using JBI tools.
Seven studies were included, addressing various methods for teaching hand hygiene using different technological resources, such as audiovisual electronic devices, videos, virtual reality, and gamification using tablets and smartphones, in different populations.
Using technologies to teach hand hygiene considerably helps patients, visitors, and relatives in learning the procedures and efficiently improves hand hygiene compliance rates among healthcare professionals, creating evidence-based repetitive learning opportunities for patients and caregivers.