Abstract
Food-borne illnesses contribute to human mortality and morbidity, and health care costs. Hand hygiene is a simple strategy to reduce the spread of pathogens; however, compliance with hand hygiene is frequently suboptimal (Guzewich & Ross, 1999; Green et al., 2006; Green et al., 2007; Pittett et al., 2004; World Health Organisation [WHO], 2005). This paper focuses on determining the weak links in observed hand hygiene practices. A direct and structured open observation method collected data on hand hygiene compliance. A nonprobability convenience sample, composed of 35 consenting trainees working in a training restaurant kitchen was used. Data were collected using a piloted observation checklist. This research shows that hand hygiene violations occur. The role of expertise, practice and training in limiting skill and knowledge based errors in hand hygiene should be further explored using a human factors model.