P160: The enablers and barriers to introducing "bare below the elbows" for hand hygiene behaviors: an exploratory study

Introduction of the ’bare below the elbows’ (BBE) guidelines within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom was met with complaints from many health care workers (HCW). BBE has been introduced in several states of Australia, and is expected to become mandatory in Victoria. There is no research indentifying the barriers and enablers to BBE nor any publicly available information on successful implementation programs. This study examines the barriers and enablers to the introduction of BBE within the 3 largest hospitals of the Eastern Health (EH) Network in outer Melbourne, Australia.