Objective

To identify adherence to Hand Hygiene (HH) of the nursing professionals of an Intensive Care Unit for adults of a public university hospital.

Methodology

Descriptive, cross-sectional, observational study with a quantitative approach, carried out with 68 professionals in a university hospital in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Data collection occurred from May to October of 2016 for 100 hours of direct observation. A form was developed for characterization of the participants and the Adapted Instrument of the Handbook for Observers - Multimodal Strategy of the World Health Organization for the Improvement of Hand Hygiene was developed. Data were submitted to descriptive analysis, in proportion measurements and Pearson's Chi-Square test, in SPSS Software version 18.0, to verify the association between adhesion and non-adhesion to HH in each of the five recommended moments and among professionals (nurse or technician of nursing), considering a level of significance of 5%.

Results

12 (17.6%) were professional nurses and 56 (82.4%) were nursing technicians. The nursing staff received a general adhesion rate of 311 (47.8%). There was no adhesion to the moment "before performing aseptic procedures". The "after" moments presented higher accession rates.

Conclusion

The rate of adhesion to HH was very low, and hygiene practice before contact with the critical patient needs to be improved with greater urgency.

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