PTV research protocol Survey on hand hygiene, use of hightouch devices, and proper habits by health care workers for prevention of infectious risk. (Preprint)

Abstract

Care-Related Infections, are infectious diseases that occur in a care setting. The most important methods of prevention are hand hygiene and proper use of gloves and gowns. Recent literature points out that mobile devices being in contact with hands or potentially contaminated environments can promote an increased occurrence of HAIs.

The purpose of our study is, therefore, to analyze the correlation between the microbial population present on the handprints of health care professionals in the wards of the Tor Vergata Hospital in Rome, and the microorganisms present on the surfaces of workers' smartphones and tablets by searching for the main agents responsible for HAIs.

Sterile swabs will be used for identification of microbial flora to be taken on hands and smartphones of health workers and transported to the laboratory for culture analysis, performed according to current microbiological procedures. This type of investigation will have a quarterly periodicity to assess any changes in the microbial flora. At the same time, questionnaires will be administered and assigned a sequential number.

Thirty health workers per quarter will be selected, for a total of 120 health workers and a total of 240 samples taken. For each sample, the following will be sought: Total bacterial load at 37°C (TBC 37°C) and at 22°C (TBC 22°C), of Coliforms/E.coli, Enterococci, Staphylococci, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella and pseudomonas and any antimicrobial resistance.

It will be important as a result of the study to promote proper education of the practitioners involved in the study on HAIs prevention.

The protocol was properly evaluated and approved by the territorial ethics committee "Lazio Area 2" on March 21, 2024 with the code 76.24 CET2 utv_ptv