Since the beginning of time, or at least for a good long while, mothers have exhorted their kids to wash their hands. It’s a lesson most of us learn and carry with us into adulthood.

And you’d think that some people namely, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers would heed this most basic tenet of proper hygiene most of all. Because, after all, hand washing is the most effective way of not spreading germs.

But according to dozens of studies, doctors are not so great when it comes to hand washing. Sure, surgeons are very careful about scrubbing up. But other docs are less vigilant about washing their hands before and after seeing patients. So over the past several years researchers have thought hard about how to get doctors to maintain better hand hygiene.

One study found that placing carefully worded signs next to soap and hand sanitizer dispensers helped.

Because doctors and other healthcare workers tend to believe that they won’t get sick, the study found that the most effective signs were those that emphasized the benefit for patients when doctors wash their hands.

Another study found that training video cameras on sinks and hand sanitizer units, and publicly reporting how often doctors and nurses washed up, significantly increased hand washing rates.

It’s not clear why, exactly, doctors aren’t normally more vigilant about hand washing. But the importance of hand hygiene is clear. Spreading diseases is one of the biggest problems in hospitals. And regular hand washing is one simple, if apparently difficult to enforce, solution.

　　惊天内幕：医生不洗手?!

　　从人类诞生的那一刻开始，至少很久很久以前，妈妈们便告诉自己的孩子要养成勤洗手的习惯。这是我们大多数人必修的一课，并将伴随我们一直到成年。

　　你会觉得，有那么一些人，比如说医生、护士以及其他医护人员会比其他人更注重这最基本的卫生习惯，毕竟洗手是防止细菌传播的最有效方法。

　　但大量研究结果显示，医生在洗手这方面并未做得很好。当然外科医生会很注重洗手。但其他科室的医生则在看病问诊前后都不那么注重洗手。因此在过去的几年里，研究人员一直苦思冥想如何让医生更注重手部卫生。

　　一项研究发现在香皂以及洗手液旁张贴措辞客气的告示能够起到一定作用。

　　由于医生及其他医护人员倾向于认为自己不会得病，该研究发现，那些强调医生勤洗手对病人有益的标语是最有效的。

　　另一项研究发现在洗手槽以及洗手液旁架设摄影机，然后公开医生及护士洗手的频率，能显著增加他们洗手的次数。

　　医生们为何不更注重洗手的确切原因尚未明了。但手部卫生的重要性众所周知。医院存在的最大问题之一便是疾病的传播。而定期洗手，尽管表面上看起来比较难做到，但却是最简单的解决方法。