Background: Nosocomial infections pose a big threat to patient safety and increased costs for society. An effective way of preventing cross-infections is to apply hygiene routines. Studies show that compliance to hygiene routines is low while there's a lack of knowledge about the best way of improving it. Aim: To investigate whether a conversation based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could influence a nurse's compliance to hygiene routines and whether it could benefit the understanding of a nurse's compliance. Method: A quantitative and qualitative method was used in the study and included one nurse. An observation of his/her daily work at a hospital ward was carried out before and after a conversation which focused on attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. Main results: Even if compliance was good to start with it improved after the conversation. The nurse's attitude towards hygiene procedures was positive, but heavy workloads and difficulty to access materials could be a barrier. The norm in the ward was, according to the nurse, that hygiene routines were important even if some were less compliant. Conclusion: the use of TPB in a conversation could benefit the understanding of the nurse's compliance. Improvements in daily practices were noticed after the conversation, which could be due to an increased awareness of the need to perform hygiene procedures. No direct conclusions could be drawn from this study because the sample was limited, but the study provides suggestions for further research.