A tool to assess barriers to adherence to hand hygiene guideline

This Brief Report presents results of preliminary testing of a tool, "Attitudes Regarding Practice Guidelines," adapted from previous work by Cabana et al to examine barriers to adherence to practice guidelines. In a small sample of 21 clinicians (10 infectious disease physicians and 11 clinical nurses), the test-retest reliability was.86 and Chronbach alpha was.80, indicating acceptable levels of stability. It is recommended that the instrument undergo further testing and adaptation as a measure of potential barriers to adherence to practice guidelines in general, and to the new Hand Hygiene Guideline for Healthcare Settings specifically.     

Reply to letter to the Editor

The fact that Dr Mansencal and colleagues have found similarfindings in their study population supports     

From Brochures to Videos to Counseling: Exposure to HIV-Prevention Programs

This research tested the prediction that reading a preventive brochure leads people to watch a preventive video, and that watching this video in turn leads to an increase in the likelihood of participating in a preventive counseling session. A sample of men and women from a southeastern community in the United States was recruited for a general health survey with the objective of examining participation in HIV-prevention interventions. Unobtrusive measures of exposure to HIV-prevention brochures, an HIV-prevention video, and an HIV-prevention counseling session were obtained. Findings indicated that reading the brochures increased watching the video and that watching the video increased participation in the counseling session. The association between exposure to the video and exposure to the counseling was mediated by expectations that the counseling would be useful. Findings are discussed in terms of the need to ensure exposure to interventions to achieve intervention effectiveness.