Evidence-Based Practice and Applied Nursing Research

Hand hygiene practices are important thing to infection prevention and control practice. As health provider especially ED staff or front liner, to follow hand washing protocols is necessary in any situation. According Practice Standard (2009) four major elements to preventing practice; hand washing, protective barriers, care of equipment and health practice of nurse. Cite from Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland, scientists has found around 45% of infections can be prevented by washing hands regularly. MOH (2010) increasing in hand-washing compliance by

Conrad, A., Grotejohann, B., Schmoor, C., Cosic, D., & Dettenkofer, M. (2015). Safety and tolerability of virucidal hand rubs: a randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial with healthy volunteers. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 4(1), 1. doi:10.1186/s13756-015-0079-y

Follow Hand Hygiene measures set by the CDC and WHO: Using the CDC and WHO guidelines to improve proper hand hygiene. This will reduce the health care related infections and reduce the transmission of disease from staff to patients (The Joint Commission, 2012)

Findings of evidenced based practice have to be disseminated to ensure that innovations for practice are replicated or applied in other settings by stakeholders in the health fraternity and healthcare professionals (Forsyth, Wright, Scherb & Gaspar, 2010). One of the objectives of dissemination should be to improve the practice. Dissemination of evidenced based practice findings in nursing is very critical in knowledge synthesis, translation, and translation. It is imperative in strengthening healthcare, informing policy, and improving practice decisions based on clinical evidence (Rycroft-Malone & Bucknall, 2010). This is realized by transforming clinical changes into practice. It actually involves two stage processes namely: translation of evidence into practice and integration of research recommendations into actual practice. Effective dissemination of evidence based practice findings enable staff to share information about developments in healthcare practice and implement innovation (Freemantle & Watt, 1994).

Evidence-based practice is relied on by professional nurses in order for them to make informed decisions as well as apply critical thinking skills directly to the patient care they provide. The research process allows the nurse to ask and answer questions systematically to ensure the decisions they make are based on sound science. Research provides the evidence needed for nurses to practice based off scientific evidence rather than by tradition (Houser, 2013). Nursing research is fundamental to the practice and is the central principle that defines the nursing profession.

The main of focus of the quality improvement program is always patient’s safety, needs, quality care and expectations. Even though the healthcare system is very critical as it involves the lives of other, there are some errors that can lead to undesirable consequences. One of the most common error that risks the lives of thousands of people including both patients and healthcare employees is the hand hygiene. Healthcare personnel are the leading source for the spread of Hospital acquired Infections. Every year about one million people die from hospital acquired infections in United States.

CDCs clean hands count campaign aim to improve healthcare provide adherence to hand hygiene recommendations, address, myths and misperceptions about hand hygiene and empower patients to play a role in their care by asking or reminding healthcare providers to clean their hands and the most germs that cause serious infections in healthcare are spread by people’s action, every patient is at risk of getting an infection while they are being treated for something else, hand hygiene is a great way to prevent infections and healthcare providers clean their hands less than half of the time they should, good hand washing is the first line of defense against the spread of many illness.

There are numerous evidence-based practice interventions that have become standard nursing practices across the country. Hand hygiene is a nursing practice intervention that is currently evidence (research) based. It is one of, if not the most, important interventions practiced in providing standardized care. The rationale behind that statement refers to the high percentage of hospital acquired infections; hand hygiene practices are measures used for maximum effectiveness in reducing the spread of these infections. Compared to the various health care professionals who come in contact with patients when providing care, nurses are by far the largest faction that implements the highest quantity of direct patient care in health care. That said, of all the asepsis precautions, techniques, and interventions that are currently in place, hand hygiene is the single most effective intervention used by nurse to prevent themselves from infection and the cross-infection to their patients. Although this evidence-based intervention is of utmost importance to implement at all times, research shows the difficulty in influencing nurses and other health care professionals to practice hand hygiene as often as recommended.

The hospital is compliant with infection control protocol according to the CDC standard guidelines. “Hand hygiene, contact precautions, as well as cleaning and disinfecting patient care equipment and the patient’s environment are essential strategies for preventing the spread of health care–associated infections. Hand hygiene is addressed in NPSG.07.01.01. Contact precautions for patients with

Patients have observed several physicians and nurses not washing their hands before interacting with patients. Hand hygiene is one of the largest tactics to combat nosocomial infections. The hospital should adopt a culture of 100% compliance with hand washing. The first step would be to increase handwashing stations and have more quick-dry alcohol-based antibacterial soap dispensers. Making access easier and decreasing the time taken to wash one’s hands would encourage adherence the policy. Furthermore, each floor should track hand washing and report data of potential nosocomial infections caused by improper handwashing. Keeping patients protected from bacteria is important especially when most are in an immunocompromised

Prevention strategies of nosocomial infections related to poor hand hygiene include revision of: orientation, training processes, competency assessments, equipment cleaning, handwashing procedures, switching to the use of single-use IV flush vials, adding strategically located waterless hand rubs, defining supervisory expectations, conducting in-services, team trainings, and tracking systems (Infection control related sentinel events, 2003). Potential solutions to noncompliance include: consistent skin protectant application, reduced time required for handwashing, and antiseptic stations at the bedside and room entry points (Boyce, 1999). Hospital administrators must create an organizational atmosphere in which adherence to recommended HH practices are considered an integral part of providing high-quality care (Boyce, 1999). Improvement in infection control

Evidence based practice in nursing research has changed the era of nursing. Every nursing intervention is evidence based. I have not served on a research/EBP council at work but I have written a nursing research paper based on evidence based practice. The title of my paper was hand washing with soap and water vs. hand sanitizer. I found out that using hand sanitizer is efficient to kill germs but hand washing with soap and water in between after 4-5 application of hand sensitizer will improve results. Hand sensitizer will kill 99.99% germs but the residue stays in the hand. Hand washing with soap and water will flushes the residue away. So, practicing both technique will help prevent infection and cross

First, reducing the risk of healthcare associated infections is implemented a few different ways. One of the ways is proper hand hygiene, by setting goals to improve the compliance of employees it will aid in lowering the percent of healthcare associated infections. This doesn’t just reduce the risk for infections but it mostly reduces the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (May 5: Hand Hygiene Day, 2014) About 2 million people in the United States obtain infections that are resistant to antibiotics and over 22,000 people die from these infections every year (May 5: Hand Hygiene Day, 2014). Hand hygiene isn’t just about washing your hands there are other aspects to hand hygiene that are just as important. The Joint Commission has issued specific guidelines that follow hand hygiene and require that organizations are to comply with these guidelines to remain accredited. (Joint Commission, n.d.) Many aspects of hand hygiene that are monitored such as when to wash, how long to wash for, which cleaning agents to use, when it is appropriate to use disposable gloves, and whether or not it is acceptable to wear artificial nails or jewelry. (May 5: Hand Hygiene Day, 2014)

Healthcare associated infections have an impact on patients - how? Can be prevented greatly with compliance to hand hygiene protocols (REF).

The low level of hand hygiene compliance reported in the literature suggests that staff compliance with isolation practices is a significant factor in evaluating any infection-controlled intervention in the clinical setting. While staff compliance data are conflicting, regular audit and feedback of performance may improve compliance. The low compliance in following isolation precautions can contribute to the spread of this infection.