ObjectiveTo understand hand hygiene(HH) compliance among nursing staff, and evaluate the effective strategies to improve HH compliance.MethodsHH compliance among 59 nurses in the internal medicine ward of a tertiary comprehensive hospital was investigated between January 2016 and June 2017, HH compliance rates of nursing staff with different professional titles and different working years were compared.ResultsHH compliance rate of 59 nurses was 69.6%, HH compliance rates of five moments for HH were: before touching a patient（59.7%）, before clean/aseptic procedure（96.2%）, after body fluid exposure risk （97.7%）, after touching a patient（56.3%）, after touching patient surroundings（42.0%）. Difference in compliance rate of different HH moments was statistically significant （χ2=220.393，P＜0.001）. HH compliance rates among nurses of different professional titles after touching patient were significantly different（χ2=6.521，P=0.038）. HH compliance rates of nurses with different working years before and after touching patient were significantly different（χ2=8.385,16.123，respectively, P＜0.05）.ConclusionThe overall HH compliance rate among nursing staff is low, management of HH compliance of junior nurses should be strengthened, and implementation of HH before and after touching patient should be emphasized.