These modules support hand hygiene education and training for clinical, non-clinical and student healthcare workers. The content of the modules is consistent with the recommendations of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, specifically the Preventing and Controlling Infections Standard, and the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare.

Hand hygiene is a high priority action for the prevention of healthcare-associated infection.

The Commission has developed new training pathways for Hand Hygiene Auditors (previously called General Auditors) and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators (previously called Gold Standard Auditors). 

Annual revalidation is a method of ensuring all Hand Hygiene Auditors and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators remain up to date with their knowledge of the 5 Moments and audit practices. This ensures valid and reliable data for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).

Hand Hygiene Auditors (previously called General Auditors) conduct direct observational audits of healthcare worker hand hygiene compliance.

This page provides information on Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator Training.

Hand hygiene is an essential element of infection prevention and control practice and one of the easiest activities to undertake, with appropriate guidance.

Hand hygiene compliance is assessed against a national benchmark set by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council; the current national benchmark is 80%. There are three national hand hygiene audits conducted each year. The latest report on audit data for the period November 2022 to March 2023 is now available. 

Responses have been prepared to frequently asked questions (FAQs) to support auditing and other aspects of implementation of the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI). 

Please let us know if you have further questions to include.

Instructions and answers to frequently asked questions have been developed to support hand hygiene compliance auditing, Hand Hygiene Auditor training and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator training.

Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) are provided to support use of the Commission's hand hygiene and infection prevention and control eLearning modules.

Data on hand hygiene compliance are collected by states and territories for all public health service organisations, and by many private health service organisations, and reported nationally three times per year for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI). 

The National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) operates a Help Desk to support users of the NHHI Learning Management System (LMS) and the Hand Hygiene Compliance Application (HHCApp).

The Help Desk team endeavours to respond to your enquiry as quickly as possible. You will receive a response within 5 business days.

During this time, please use the Contact Us form at the link below to submit your enquiry to the Help Desk. 

The National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) Learning Management System (LMS) hosts a suite of online learning modules designed to support healthcare workers' education on hand hygiene practices, hand hygiene auditor training, and infection prevention and control across health service organisations. 

A range of promotional materials is available to support implementation of the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).

The National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) Implementation Guide is designed to help health service organisations to implement and manage their hand hygiene program and to meet the requirements of relevant national standards.

There are a number of tools available to support hand hygiene auditing in acute and non-acute healthcare settings.

Hand hygiene compliance auditing is conducted to assess the effectiveness of hand hygiene programs in Australia, as part of the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI). Hand hygiene compliance is assessed across both public and private Australian hospitals, consistent with AHMAC endorsed benchmark of 80 per cent.

Instructions and responses to frequently asked questions have been developed to support use of the HHCApp.

The 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene approach was designed by the World Health Organization to minimise the risk of transmission of microorganisms between a healthcare worker, the patient, and the environment.

Alcohol-based hand rub is the recommended product for hand hygiene in healthcare settings when hands are visibly clean.