Objective To comprehend the hand contact behaviors by various staff members in the ICU, and to provide reference for prevention and control of nosocomial infection. Methods Several IPads were distributed across the surgical ICU to video film the hand contact behaviors by various staff members in the ICU.Then,occurrence and purpose of hand contact behaviors were summed up from the videos. Results A total of 15 videos were filmed, totaling 19.02 hours, with an averaged filming length of (1.27±0.18) hours.A total of 292 person contacts were collected, with an average of 15.35 person contacts/hour.A total of 463 contacts were observed, among which, 286(61.77%) were object-surface related contacts, with an average of 15.03 contacts/hour, and 177(38.23%) were patient related contacts, with an average of 9.31 contacts /hour.When hand contacts were sorted by the types of workers, nurses contributed to the highest number of person contacts (150 ), followed by nurse aids (92) , doctors (42), and other personnel (8).There were 144 unnecessary person contacts, respectively contributed by doctors(15), nurses (85), nurse aides (41) and other personnel（3）.There was significant difference in the proportions of unnecessary and necessary person contacts by the 4 types of workers （P＜0.05）. Conclusion Attention should be paid to medical staff′s hand contact behaviors,and measures should be taken minimize unnecessary contacts with patients to reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections.