Exploring determinants of hand hygiene among hospital nurses: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The present research is a qualitative one aiming to determine factors affecting hand-hygiene behavior of the nursing staff in Shariati Hospital of Tehran, Iran. METHODS: This was a qualitative study performed using content analysis approach. Considering the aim of the study, 16 in-depth semi-structured interviews were held with the nursing staff of Shariati Hospital of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. A convenient sampling was performed and continued until data saturation and until no new codes and categories were obtained. Data were analyzed through a qualitative content analysis based on the Graham and landsman method. Directed qualitative content analysis was done in order to analyze the data. RESULTS: The results of this study revealed 3 main themes in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control) and 8 main themes in the outside the framework (environment, perceptions, life style, morality, education, organizational culture, salience and personality). CONCLUSION: Due to the other factors also found in this study, an integration of theories and models for designing of interventions is recommended to increase adherence to hand hygiene behavior. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-020-00505-y.