Most hospital workers more or less ignored hand-washing policies — and compliance declined sharply over the course of long shifts — in a study of more than 4,000 caregivers at 35 US hospitals led by Hengchen Dai of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Compliance dipped from 42.6pc at the start of a shift to 34.8pc after 12 hours of work. When workers were given longer breaks between shifts, they got better at following the rules.

(Source: The Wharton School)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, December 22th , 2014