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Introduction Adherence to infection control guidelines is low, and several efforts have been made to improve healthcare workers' performance of infection control measures. In this study, the performance and evaluation of a hospital-wide infection control programme is described. The most important measure was distribution of an infection control newsletter. Methods In evaluation of the programme, a randomised selection of healthcare workers received a questionnaire to investigate in what degree the healthcare workers was aware of the programme and whether they reported behavioural change and refreshed knowledge as result of the programme. Results The intervention made it possible to reach >80% of the personnel in a Norwegian university hospital. Among those who actually read Infection Control Newsletter, 92.9% reported that their knowledge was refreshed and 60.6% reported behavioural change. Discussion The intervention had a significant impact on nurses and nurse assistants' reports on knowledge and behaviour related to infection control. Our study supports the importance of a long-term and multimodal approach to healthcare workers in infection control work. The time and resources spent to produce and distribute the Infection Control Newsletter was an effective way to reach out to a large number of healthcare workers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]