Hand Hygiene For Human Services Professionals

Another problem that goes with the lack of hand-hygiene compliance is the many excuses that healthcare workers use to avoid washing their hands. Hass and Larson summarize (2009) some of the barriers to adherence that healthcare workers use, “a lack of access to hand-washing sinks, insufficient time, skin irritations, and lack of accountability” (Hass & Larson, 2009). Some solutions they explain to combat the barriers are to put more alcohol-based sanitizers where sinks are not around and placing them all over the patient care areas also reduces time and can be a suitable way for proper hand hygiene if the healthcare worker’s hand is not soiled. They also describe, “Involve staff in trying several alcohol-based hand sanitizers before deciding on one, and involve employee health services in creating a plan to manage hand-skin problems among staff. Alcohol-based sanitizers that have lotion in them can be helpful for staff who have very sensitive skin” (Hass & Larson, 2009).

Generations of people have considered handwashing a measure of personal hygiene. In 1847, Dr. Semmelweis insisted that healthcare providers wash their hands with disinfecting agents between patients. This early hand hygiene practice resulted in a decrease in mortality rates among hospital patients (CDC, 2002). The CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee published the Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings in 2002 that is based on hand hygiene foundations developed in generation past. In 2014, this guideline is still available online and used as a reference

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.

This assignment shall be identifying the evidence underpinning the skills and professional approach required in patient care. Hand hygiene is seen as a form of action that is done by using your hands to prevent the spread of harmful germs and infections, this action is performed by both healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients before assisting with personal care involving touching. There are many different types of hand hygiene actions taken in the UK, these include Surgical Antisepsis, wearing gloves, washing your hands with a soap or alcohol-based formulation hand wash. It is important to always remain protected when touching a patient, their surroundings or body fluid.

One the main roles healthcare workers (HCWs) can do is to provide patients with a safe environment whilst they are in the healthcare setting. In providing clinical safety to patients HCWs are ensuring that the patient will be safe from preventable adverse events occurring to them whilst they are in the hospital setting. Patient safety should be a of high priority to the healthcare setting and HCWs. Nursing staff are the main providers of care to patients whilst in the healthcare setting and have many responsibilities in delivering safe patient care. Whilst in the healthcare setting patients are vulnerable and at the hand of healthcare workers, thus it is extremely important for healthcare workers to maintain hand hygiene. To maintain a

There is a serious concern today about healthcare associated infection due to limited or lack hand hygiene. The concern has brought burden to patients, which many times result into additional complication posing a threat to the patient’s wellness process. In some cases, these acquired infection(s) will lead to long hospitalization or rehabilitation stay or re-hospitalization with huge healthcare cost left for patients to pay. One main cause of these infections are as a result of healthcare worker not performing proper hand hygiene before and after care and also in between patients. The healthcare associated infection spread is by direct contact from one healthcare worker’s hands to the patients and from patients to patients. Hand hygiene can be defined as is a “preventive practice to stop the spread of disease. These practices include basic handwashing, using antisepsis to kill germs on hands, and protecting the skin” (Hand hygiene, 2016). To meet to standards of hand hygiene the agents used during this process are: plain soap and water, antimicrobial soap and water and alcohol-base hand sanitizer. With the use of these agents to prevent the spread of infection, proper handwashing technique is considered the optimum practice for clean hands. I chose “Hand

Nurses can provide printed patient safety guidelines for patients and their families to follow so that patients may proactively perform extra cleanliness in preoperative preparation; also raise caregivers’ awareness of hand hygiene prior to performing procedures (Skoufalos et al., 2012). In addition, as antibiotic

2. The problem with not performing hand hygiene is the spread of microorganisms from patient to patient, and the health care worker is not protecting themselves. If a patient ends up with a hospital-acquired infection, it costs the hospital money because insurance refuses to pay for it. The problem with adequately performing hand hygiene causes dry and sore hands; it also takes longer to perform hand hygiene correctly. All participants mentioned a lack of social control and negative role models for students in clinical. “All participants agreed that creating a stronger social norm and establishing more explicit social control would be important for improving hand hygiene” (Erasmus).

Hand hygiene compliance is very relevant in health care. At study by Creel (2015) evaluates whether or not monitoring interventions improve hand hygiene compliance (Creel, 2015). Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) can be detrimental to not only patients but also visitors, workers, and families. Considering the fact that most patients in the hospital are highly susceptible of having compromised immune systems, it is imperative that healthcare professionals take the proper necessary precautions, such as effective hand hygiene, to decrease the risk of transmission. This is a cost effective management of infection control that can potentially save lives.

More hospitals should adopt these new technologies to enforce hand washing compliance among health care professionals. Based on the current research, these techniques have shown a major improvement when they are in use. Even though these technologies are very expensive, in the long run, it has the potential to save many lives. This will also cut costs, because now there are fewer patients to take care of with infections. Improving hand hygiene will definitely make hospitals around the nation a safer and cleaner place. These three technologies have been studied by researchers and show promising results for increasing hand washing compliance. Every health care worker in the hospital has an obligation to prevent the spread of infections to patients.

Hand hygiene plays an important part in the health care sector if it can only be applied many people’s lives can be protected, it also is an important part of nursing practice (WHO, 2009). As of now and the rest of my career as a nurse l also have a vital role to play when working in the practice to prompt other healthcare workers to conform h hand hygiene practices. Each time l fail to comply with proper hand hygiene practices, l will be putting the patients at risk. I must put patients at the centre of everything that l do by making their care and safety the main concern that includes good practice to hand

Hand hygiene (HH), or cleansing of the hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), is the single most important clinical determinant for marked risk reduction of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) or more specifically, multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), a major contributing factor to patient morbidity and mortality. Despite being one of multiple quality indicators for hospital patient safety ratings and infection prevention interventions, hand hygiene compliance (HHC) amongst healthcare workers (HCW) is subpar across the nation. This paper explores the significance of HHC, a current quality improvement issue in nursing practice. Current data and tools for measuring the nursing sensitive indicator of HHC will be discussed. It concludes with a model for improvement in HHC to meet a minimum recommended sustained rate of 90% compliance.

Provide education just in time — at or near the point of care — with posters or video displays. Provide computer video presentations of proper technique — embed in Intranet, email distributions, or electronic medical record (EMR) Use fluorescent dye-based training methods to demonstrate correct hand hygiene techniques to clinical staff. 2. Design and test a process for stocking supplies. Assign responsibility to check supplies of soap, rub, and gloves, and assess compliance; set up system to report needed restocking Evaluate soap and alcohol dispensers before purchase to check usability; use front-line staff in evaluation. Make compliance convenient, for example, provide pocket sized bottles of alcohol gel 3. Create a culture that supports reliable hand hygiene. Enlist opinion leaders as role models: Leaders discuss and demonstrate proper technique. Coach opinion leaders to make mutual monitoring an accepted behavior norm. 4. Use reminders at the point of care Enlist patient and caregiver cooperation in providing reminders: Inform every patient that hand washing is expected and encourage them to observe and question staff; start an “OK to Ask” campaign (i.e., patient education encouraging them to ask about hand hygiene before care is provided); place an announcement by the chief executive on the

The ultimate goal of research is to develop, refine, and expand a body of knowledge. This was evident from the six (6) articles which I had chosen for my research topic. The information provided by the above studies gave me a better understanding of how vital research is in this new eon. All the authors provided different views and opinions on the research topic, allowing me to obtain imperative knowledge. It was understood that hand hygiene practices is fundamental among nurses and members of the health care team in order to provide effective and efficient health care. The basic nursing curricula should really focus a bit more on hand hygiene compliance (Kelcíkova, S., Skodova, Z., & Straka, S.,2012) because hand washing is a primary way

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2012) guidelines state that misconceptions about hand hygiene in relation to infection control are still being reported and that effective hand decontamination is still not collectively practiced, despite a vast improvement in recent years. This means that although many execute good practice, there are still healthcare workers who are putting patients at risk by not following the recommended procedure.