Compliance With Hand Hygiene Guidelines

The Research to Practice column attempts to serve 2 purposes: (1) fine-tune the research critique skills of advanced practice nurses and (2) suggest strategies to translate findings from a research study into bedside practice. For each column, a topic and a particular research study are selected. The stage is set by introducing the importance of the topic. The research paper is then reviewed and critiqued, and finally, the implications for translation into practice are discussed. In this column, T. Eckmans, J. Bessert, M. Behnke, P. Gastmeir, and R. Henning (2006) investigate the effect of having a trained observer assess for compliance with antiseptic hand rub use in intensive care units. The implications of these findings for advanced practice nurses are discussed.