One Question Per PagefalsefalseHand hygiene is commonly regarded as the most important activity for reducing the spread of infection (Reybrouck, 1983), yet evidence suggests that many health care professionals do not wash their hands as often as they should or use the correct technique (Emmerson et al., 1996, as cited in Kerr, 1998 & Taylor, 1978).2Smith-Temple (1994) recommends washing hands for one to two minutes to be effective.3Investigations into the techniques of hand washing are limited (Nurse Network, 2002), which highlights a gap in research and a need for this study.3The National Audit Office (NAO) report and the Controls Assurance Standards require infection control to be a part of the induction of all staff (NAO, 2004).3For example, at Castletown Hospital the infection control nurses continue to have a slot on the corporate induction programme. However, due to the pressure to include other subjects, the time slot has been reduced from seventy-five minutes to thirty minutes.2This means that there is limited opportunity for participants to practice their hand washing skills (Castletown Hospital annual report, 2004/2005).3In turn, this should benefit the patients who will come into contact with these nurses.6This example is not uncommon, and even though hand hygiene is crucial to reducing infection, the time spent discussing this topic and ensuring a good technique is limited.3Therefore this research aims to look at whether the amount of bacteria on hands is reduced after additional training on accurate techniques.1This research will benefit the hospital where the research is undertaken as its results could lead to more time spent on hand washing techniques in training and hopefully lead to a reduction in hospital-acquired infections (HAI).6It will also benefit the nurses involved, as hopefully the research will prompt them to ensure they use a good technique.6https://339efcb25eb75e967b0d-ff8eeadd950d51fd1fc939dca75b3973.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/assets_green.swf