One of the shortcomings of our study was the small sample size.
Ideally, future studies should include a larger number of participants.
Our study did not determine the effectiveness of the two regimens in removing transient flora from the hands of study participants.
However, numerous studies have demonstrated that alcohol-containing hand rubs remove bacteria from the hands of personnel more effectively than hand washing with plain soap and water.
14-17 Therefore, it is likely that the alcoholic gel was at least as effective as washing with soap and water. Also, our study was not designed to evaluate if participants washed their hands appropriately.
All three methods used to assess the condition of nurses’ hands yielded concordant results, namely, that nurses experienced greater skin dryness and irritation when using soap and water than when using the alcoholic hand gel.