A recent study suggests that healthcare workers wash their hands less as the workday progresses because the mental reserves they need to follow rules are depleted, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.

New research published by the American Psychological Association found that hand-washing compliance rates dropped by an average of 8.7 percentage points from the beginning to the end of a typical 12-hour shift. The decline in compliance was magnified by increased work intensity.

"Just as the repeated exercise of muscles leads to physical fatigue, repeated use of executive resources (cognitive resources that allow people to control their behaviors, desires and emotions) produces a decline in an individual's self-regulatory capacity," the researchers wrote.

The study also found that workers followed hand-washing protocol more carefully after longer breaks.

Read the article.