AIDS prevention: improving nurses' compliance with glove wearing through performance feedback.

Four emergency-room nurses were watched during high-risk contact with blood or body fluids.

An infection-control nurse gave each worker private feedback every two weeks.

The study used a multiple-baseline design so each nurse started feedback at a different time.

Glove wearing rose between 22 and 49 percentage points after feedback began.

The gains held as long as feedback continued.

No extra training or prizes were needed—just simple charts and a quick chat.

Lobb et al. (1977) used the same multiple-baseline design to teach neighborhood volunteers to write better lesson plans. Both papers show that brief, low-cost coaching lifts adult practitioner skills.

Walsh et al. (2019) also boosted medical-student scores, but they used daily SAFMEDS fluency drills instead of feedback. The two studies together tell us that either fast practice or steady feedback can sharpen health-care performance.

Kranak et al. (2021) gave clinicians automated stats software to interpret functional analyses. Their tool and E’s feedback both aim to help practitioners, yet one targets data skills and the other targets safety habits—different tools, same goal of better client care.

You can copy this cheap feedback loop in any clinic. Pick one safety habit, track it weekly, and give each staff member a two-minute private review. Expect a 20-point jump without extra prizes or long classes.