Hospital-Associated Infection

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

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

Over the years one of the leading causes of hospital acquired infection has been attributed to the poor hand hygiene. Whether it is due to the fact that healthcare workers are not sanitizing their hands between patients that can lead to cross contamination between patients, between staff and patients, or even staff to staff. Since a majority of hospital associated infections such Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) as are transmitted via contact and can remain on surfaces for up to thirty of more days it is very easy to transmit between patients with ineffective hand hygiene. There should be accessibility to both hand sanitizers as well as handwashing areas which would make it easy for staff, patients, and visitors to follow hand washing protocols. Studies done over the past on health care workers in reference to proper hand hygiene has shown that there is still an at least a fifty percent times in which proper hand hygiene is not performed (Ara, et al., 2016). On a daily basis a health care worker comes into contact of different microbes which are easily transmitted and according to the CDC not following the proper hand hygiene along with adequate solvent is reportedly the number one factor that contributes to HAI’s (CDC, 2015). Healthcare facilities are currently making handwashing more accessible by providing alcohol based hand sanitizers outside of patient’s rooms which are more visible to visitors and staff. Studies have shown several factors that contribute to the lack of proper hand hygiene, knowledge of the spread of infection via contact with contaminated hands, the importance of having solvents such as hand sanitizers being accessible and antibacterial soap, the understanding of the proper method involved in hand washing, understaffing is also a

They are amongst the primary causes of avoidable deaths in the United States and are associated with a considerable increment in the cost of health care each year. The primary most effective means to decrease hospital acquired infection is hand hygiene, yet researches show that most health care providers are reluctant for hand washing. Nurses are the ones who have a close contact with the patient than any other health care provider. The nurse is basically a patient promoter that puts him/her in an exceptional position. Therefore, the nurse has the unique opportunity to decrease the potential for hospital-acquired infections. He/she must be certain that all aspects of his/her nursing practice are based on the evidence, researches and education. He/she can smooth the progress of patient recovery and minimize complications related to infections by applying the skills and knowledge of nursing

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

Conceptual/theoretical framework. The authors indicated that the concept behind their research is to identify omissions in hand hygiene practices to further strengthen the protocol instilled by CDC (Chau et al., 2011). There is appropriate reasoning behind the conduction of their analysis due to the strict enforcement by the CDC. Additionally, more information is needed to understand the theoretical framework for this

Most healthcare-associated infections are spread through direct contact, mainly through the hands of healthcare workers (Gould et al., 2010). Hand hygiene can prevent health care associated infection. The aim of hand hygiene through hand washing is to sufficiently reduce the microorganisms on the skin to prevent cross transmission. Hand hygiene, Infection prevention and control should be incorporated into every aspect of healthcare, this can be done using evidence based practise. Evidence based practise requires health professionals to apply the best available evidence to assist with their clinical decision making (Ilic, 2009)

Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings provides healthcare workers and patients with a variety of resources to reduce the spread of diarrheal and respiratory illness. Also, the latest technological advances in hand hygiene measure. Healthcare workers are obligated to continue to use healthcare antiseptic products recommended by CDC and HICPAC infection control guidelines and consistent with institution policy

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.

The main priority in my workplace is to protect the patients, visitors and staff from the risk of acquiring a hospital-associated infection. Most of our patients are immune-compromised due to treatment or disease, so we introduced a zero tolerance approach to poor hand hygiene. It is universally recognized that the hands are the primary source of cross-infection and good hand washing techniques are the main factor to prevent infection (Weston, 2013). We have enforced good hand hygiene practice by ensuring that all staff members are up to date with the mandatory yearly training and observing the 5 moments of hand hygiene. Family/visitors of patients are

According to WHO (2009), there are several studies that provide quantitative evaluation of budget savings via hand hygiene promotion programs. Pittet et al, (2000) conducted a study to assess the direct and indirect effects of the hand hygiene promotion program. He observed that the hand hygiene program saves money even if the reduction of HAI is less than 1%. Although hand hygiene is considered the most effective, simple and cheap infection control measure, hand washing in developing countries in general is viewed as suboptimal. For example, the hand hygiene compliance rate in Turkey is less than 33% (Alp et al, 2011) and in Ethiopia, it is 38.7% (WHO,

Healthcare associated infections (HCAI) are a universal problem, and each year they lead to a significant number of deaths around the world. In order to prevent these infections, healthcare workers must adopt good hand hygiene practices, because hands are the most common vehicle for transmission of HCAI. Hand hygiene compliance rates among healthcare workers in hospitals are considered to be low. The purpose of this study is to present a literature review of the available literature relevant to the research question. Nine articles from a variety of databases have been examined in this literature review. The research question under investigation is: What is the impact of hand hygiene compliance on healthcare associated infections (HCAI) in hospitals? Three themes were found throughout the articles and addressed in the literature review: factors influencing hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers, the adoption and challenges of alcohol-based rubs, and impact of hand hygiene promotion on HCAI. The introduction of alcohol-based rubs and multi-modal campaigns has shown to reduce HCAI rates in hospitals. However, further research is needed to pin point which elements of multi-modal campaigns are the most efficient.

Some articles were excluded from this review because they did not meet the inclusion criteria, stated before in the Methodology Chapter. Eleven studies out of nineteen assessed the compliance of hand hygiene among healthcare workers. A study carried out by Abd Elaziz and Bakr, (2009) evaluated the knowledge, attitude and practice of hand hygiene. Other studies undertaken by (Joshi et al., 2012; McLaws et al., 2014; Yuan et al., 2008; Salmon and McLaws, 2015; Borg et al, 2009) evaluated the perceptions of healthcare workers concerning the importance of hand hygiene; a study conducted by Naderi et al (2012) assessed the hand hygiene compliance and changing gloves. Moreover, two studies carried out by (Yawson and Hesse, 2013; Owusu- Ofori et al., 2010) assessed the resources of hand hygiene and the compliance of healthcare workers to the hygiene rules. Abdella et al (2014) evaluated the factors related to hand hygiene adherence among healthcare providers. Furthermore, four studies out of nineteen: (Medeiros et al., 2015; Su et al., 2015; Chakravarthy et al., 2015; Guzman et al., 2014) examined the impact of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) the Multidimensional Approach on the hand hygiene practice. One of the studies made a comparison between the impact of a multimodal training program and that of traditional lecturing on the knowledge, belief and practice of the hand hygiene of nurses to determine the one that is most effective (Ghezeljeh et al., 2015). Allegranzi et al (2010) evaluated the successfulness of WHO regarding Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy implementation in low-income countries. Table ( ) below summarises the findings of the nineteen studies. It provides an overview of all studies including information on the authors, settings, methodology, the interventions used in each study and

Hand washing is a simple task yet the effect it can have is enormous in comparison to the action performed. As explained in a journal article from Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, Jowitt explains how hand hygiene is a huge way to prevent and control infection but as important as it is often research has shown that it is often not done at the rate it should be both locally and internationally (Jowitt, 2012). Allen wrote in the AORN Journal and he explains that hand hygiene is a basic component of preventing infection and it applies to all health professionals coming in contact with a patient (Allen, 2015). This is a highly agreed upon subject and there is not much debate both Allen and Jowitt explain the importance of it. This should be the biggest priority to nurses when preventing the spread of pathogens because this is the simplest and most effective way stop the spread of pathogens. Preventing the spread of

Recent studies show that at any time, over 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from hospital-acquired infections (Public Health Ontario). In Canada alone, approximately 250 000 patients every year contract infectious micro-organisms from their healthcare providers (Nagel 18). At London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) we take pride in providing world class care in a safe, comfortable environment for patients. However, between 2008 and 2010 the LHSC still had between 20 and 30 per cent non-compliance to proper hand-washing protocol (Nagel 20). This data is very troubling considering it is following the launch of “Just Clean Your Hands” pilot project. As student nurses and volunteers of the LHSC team we are equally responsible to increase hand-washing compliance.