Psychological Approach to Hospital Acquired Infections

Work describes the first study of hospital-acquired infections from the psychological perspective. In a systematic probing of the attitudes and behavior of clinical staff towards handwashing, the single most important preventative measure, factors hitherto implicated have been eliminated one by one. The responsibility for avoidable infections has been shown to lie within the psyche of individuals, and explains why Semmelweis's precepts, though consistently validated by generations of medical scientists, remain unheeded in practice.