preview

Hand Hygiene And Infection Control Safety

Decent Essays
Hand Hygiene and Infection Control Safety "An estimated 2.5 million hospital-acquired infections occur annually in the United States" (Fox et al., 2015). Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are defined as infections that are associated with interventions, devices or procedures carried out in healthcare facilities (Aziz, 2014). Of these 2.5 million HAIs, 90,000 patient deaths result that were completely preventable (Fox et al., 2015). These infections are considered to be entirely avoidable if health care workers adhere to proper infection control guidelines. One of the most significant ways of preventing infection in a health care setting is proper hand hygiene. Hand hygiene has been accepted as the single most important measure to prevent the spread of infection and is the foundation of most infection prevention and control programs (Grota, Ackiss, & Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, 2014). Nurses are the individuals who interact with patients the most; therefore, it is crucial that nurses follow proper hand hygiene practices in order to prevent the occurrence of HAIs. Although there is an abundance of evidence that HAIs cause a substantial amount of preventable morbidity and mortality, nurses often view them as far less of a threat to patient safety than other adverse events such as falls and medication administration errors. As a result of this mentality, 2.5 million HAIs occur in the United States every year. Proper hand
Get Access