rs was an effective means of increasing hand antisepsis rates on two hospital intensive care units. This is an important finding because health care workers are required by national as well as institutional professional guidelines to wash and degerm their hands before and after every patient contact, regardless of the type of contact that the health care worker has with the patient, the use of gloves, or the role of the health care worker. Unfortunately, many health care workers, including physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff such as therapists do not seem to be in compliance with these requirements.
Hand washing remains the most effective and least expensive to prevent the transmission of nosocomial infections (Wynd, Samstag, & Lapp, 1994). However, even after through hand cleansing, the fingernails in general, and the subungual region in particular harbor a greater number of microorganisms than are found in other areas of the hand. This particular area is often neglected d
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