Background: Research shows that hand hygiene is the most effective way to prevent the spread of infection. Despite previous research, millions of people are infected every year by health-related infections. According to WHO guidelines, hand hygiene must be performed on five occasions. The five occasions are before touching the patient, before clean and aseptic procedures, after exposure to body fluid, after patient contact and after close contact with the patient environment.

Aim: The aim of the study is to describe hand hygiene among nurses in a hospital environment.

Method: For this study two methods were used to collect data. One using observations and one using scientific articles. To analyze the collected data a method to analyze qualitative data was used.

Results: Many different factors affect the nurse's compliance to hand hygiene. In the scientific studies, the nurses described their surroundings, their knowledge and their willingness to perform hand hygiene based on self-benefit as the factors that most strongly affect compliance. From the observations it emerged that the nurse performed hand hygiene to a greater extent after performed care compared to before.

Conclusion: Nurses perform hand hygiene to protect themselves and their families, and some nurses do not believe that hand hygiene can prevent the spread of infections.