Infection Control Link Nurses Program to Improve Compliance With Standard Precautions, Hand Hygiene, and Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if Infection Control Link Nurses (i.e., clinical nurses providing direct patient care with an interest and expertise in infection control practices) are effective in improving nurses' compliance with standard precaution measures, healthcare professional's compliance with hand hygiene practices and in reducing healthcare-associated infections. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Are Infection Control Link Nurses effective in improving nurses' compliance with standard precautions? * Are Infection Control Link Nurses effective in improving healthcare professionals' compliance with hand hygiene practices? * Are Infection Control Link Nurses effective in improving alcohol-based hand rub consumption? * Are Infection Control Link Nurses effective in reducing healthcare-associated infections? In this study, a total of 8 hospital units will be randomized in two groups: 1) Intervention group, where in 4 hospital units will be selected and trained 4 Infection Control Link Nurses; and 2) Control group, where in 4 hospital units will continue usual IPC practice. Training of Infection Control Link Nurses will be 12 months-long, with regular monthly scheduled meetings. Researchers will compare Intervention group with the Control group to see if nurses' compliance with standard precautions and healthcare professionals' compliance with hand hygiene will improve in the Intervention group, and if overall healthcare-associated infection incidence will decrease. Participants will be nurses working full time in the selected hospital units, for a total of 100 nurses. They will sign an Informed Consent form and they will fill out a validated instrument named "Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale-Italian Version", to measure their adherence to standard precautions measures (i.e., use of protective device, disposal of sharp, disposal of waste etc). Concurrently, evaluation of healthcare professionals' compliance with hand hygiene will be done via direct observation, following World Health Organization's Technical Manual, by hospital staff who did not participate in the conception and design of the study. Lastly, data regarding alcohol-based hand rub consumption and healthcare-associated infections will be collected by experienced personnel who routinely perform these activities. The study will last 12 months, data collection will be carried out at baseline (pre-implementation of infection control link nurses) and after 12 months (after infection control link nurses implementation).