NOSEC Observational Tool

The monitoring of the effectiveness of the hand hygiene campaign is important, and there are a number of ways in which this can be done. The regular audits that are currently in place will assist in evaluating the increased use of the handrubs and soap.

However, this may not give an indication of a behavioural change. Another way of ascertaining a change in behaviour and ensuring that the hand hygiene message is operating effectively is to use an observational tool.

There are a number of observational tools available that will enable the monitoring of how effective the campaign has been in changing staff, patient and visitor behaviour.

The NPSA commissioned the Royal Free & University College Medical School, University College London (UCL) to look at the currently available observational tools and establish their effectiveness. The results of this research found some of the observational tools were a bit unyielding and did not suit the purpose, and set about developing a simplified methodology.

Following extensive piloting and evaluation, UCL developed a simple and reliable observational tool.

A summary document of the observation tool can be found at

A more detailed version of the Hand Hygiene Observation Tool can be found at