Implementing a Hand Hygiene Program in a Rural Elementary School

In the United States of America 66% of children in the public-school system, will miss school due to illness or injury (Nandrup-Bus, 2009). The purpose of this project was to implement a hand hygiene program to help reduce the number of absences in a rural elementary school by improving knowledge and frequency of hand hygiene. The hand hygiene program consisted of surveys, developing lesson plans, observing, educating, and setting times for students to wash their hands during the school day. This hand hygiene program was implemented in each grade and classroom of one elementary school, Elementary 1. Elementary 1 has 494 students, Elementary 2 has 481 students. The number of absences were then compared to the absences of Elementary 2 which is in the same town, where a hand hygiene program was not implemented. Elementary 1 had 1,293 absent days and Elementary 2 had 1,435 absent days. It was found that the absence rate for Elementary 1 was statistically lower, p-value of <0.00001 and a 2.5% total percent, less than Elementary 2 during the same time frame. Elementary 1 also showed improvement in knowledge on how to wash their hands properly. This project was able to fulfill the purpose to implement a cost-effective hand hygiene program and reduce the number of absences in Elementary 1 compared to Elementary 2. This project serves as a model for hand hygiene educational programs to be duplicated in other rural schools.