How Does Proper Hand Hygiene Affect Nursing

Mr. Gawande starts his literature on washing hands. He introduces two friends a microbiologist and an infectious disease specialist. Both work hard and diligently against the spread of diseases just like Semmelweis who is mentioned in the chapter. Something I learned, that not many realize, is that each year two million people acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Mainly because the clinicians only wash their hands one-third to one-half as many times as they should. Semmelweis, mentioned earlier, concluded in 1847 that doctors themselves were to blame for childbed fever, which was the leading cause of

Hospital acquired infections are a big problem today, but the use of disinfectants by the medical staff can help to avoid or limit such exposures to pathogens. The authors’ main purpose of this research article was to educate and teach the importance of hand hygiene and test the reason why certain virucidal hand-rubs result in poor compliance due to the poor tolerability of the products. The overall goal with the study would to show the reason certain hand rubs are not being used and how to improve their formula to increase compliance. The article written by the author was very well written with a thorough abstract. The study was very easy to follow and read, due to the well thought out structure of the article. The authors introduction starts out by stating the approximate amount of hospital acquired infections in the European Union and why hand sanitizers play an important role to avoid such infections. The introductions statement showed the importance of the topic. Although some of the results were complicated and confusing, the discussion laid out the results in layman

Good hand hygiene is the simplest, yet proven strategy to counteract hospital infection. However, the difficulties of achieving good levels of compliance are well noted in the literature. There are several seeming barriers to carry out adequate hand hygiene:

This study was intended to prove that hand hygiene practiced according to the CDC guidelines will decrease the incidence of hospital acquired infections. This could not really be proved in this study since the hospitals were not able to maintain improvement in hand hygiene. Health care workers were familiar with guidelines but significant practice changes were not maintained. Some of the infection rates did improve during this time but the correlation with hand hygiene is not consistent. There were other practice changes occurring during this same time and those changes may be responsible for the decreased infection rates.

The quarantine or isolation of infected individuals is an effective strategy to prevent direct contact transmission to susceptible hosts and reduce the spread of a microorganism. However, where treatment is required, the clinician should wash their hands with antibacterial soap before and after patient contact as good hand hygiene is correlated with an estimated five million lives saved per year from enteric diseases alone (Curtis and Cairncross,

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of hand hygiene and how it decreases the transmission of infection throughout (Bloomfield, Aiello, Cookson, O'Boyle, & Larson, 2007). Handwashing can include alcohol based hygiene items and handwashing with soap and water. This study main focus was on North American and Europe. There is plenty of supporting rationale to backup why this study was conducted. Some of the few things this study wanted to achieve are hand hygiene is key to staying healthy and reducing infection. This needs to be followed both in the workplace and around the community to abstain from infections. Handwashing can be achieved by soap and water or hand sanitizers that removes or eliminates many microorganisms on the surface of the hand (de Oliveira Dourado, da Costa Barros, Diogo de Vasconcelos, & da Silva Santos, 2017). This can impact many individuals by using this technique to keep foreign germs off of the hands. The importance of washing hands

Since 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis had been advocating in the medical community for the increase in the practice of handwashing. Based on the work of medical historian Dr. Howard Markel, we know that Dr. Semmelweis pioneered the medical field in prophylaxis (the prevention of disease) through his use of sanitation. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was a “prickly Hungarian obstetrician” at Vienna General Hospital (Markel 1). An obstetrician is a doctor qualified to care for women giving birth. He tested many theories as to the mysterious cases of puerperal fever that plagued the maternity ward. In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis almost revolutionized medical care when he discovered the importance of handwashing;

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

are the principal route by which cross-infection occurs and that hand hygiene is the single

Gawande mentions in the beginning of the book about the incident where his patient’s surgery time had to be delay since operating rooms were full and “there are only enough nurses available to cover seventeen of forty-two operating rooms” (Gawande 6). In that case, if each nurse took an extra minute after each patient they encounter to wash their hands, then there will about a twenty minute delay for each nurse since each nurse is responsible for checking in on twenty patients in an hour during their rounds. Since washing hands took too long for the fast-paced hospital setting, hospitals began to replace hand soap with easy to-go hand gel. The fifteen seconds hand rub-over gel saved time and increased the medical staff participation in hand washing to 70 percent, but hospital infection rate was barely affected by the change since there were still a 30 percent of non-hand-washers who are still transmitting the infections.

For the purpose of this essay the clinical skill chosen for exploration is hand decontamination and the difficulties that may arise in its completion in a clinical setting. Furthermore, appropriate literature will be used to discuss whether the evidence shows that using alcohol-based hand sanitisers instead of traditional soap and water may be a more effective option to ensure complete hand disinfection in light of these difficulties.

This experiment illustrates the importance of handwashing and proves that hand washing is worth it. Since our hands are constantly coming into contact with ourselves and others, touching surfaces, grabbing objects, being sneezed into, etc., keeping our hands clean is one of the most effective, yet simple way we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running warm water. “The human skin is a host to anywhere between 10,000-10,000,000 bacteria per square centimeter and since health care providers come into contact with pathogenic bacteria by being engaged in patient care, hand washing can reduce the risk of spreading diseases (page 3).” The objective of the experiment is to test the effectiveness of hand washing and demonstrate normal flora. This report presents the procedures and materials for the experiment, the experiment's results, and an analysis of those results.

Handshaking is perhaps the most widely recognized of greetings worldwide. While the culture context of a handshake is warm and friendly gesture. The surface of a person hands harbor pathogens and act as vector for infection. This could lead to hospital-acquired infections, a “localized or systemic condition resulting from an adverse reaction to the presence of infectious agent(s) or its toxin(s)”, which can be potentially life-threatening problem (CDC, 2016). In attempt to prevent the spread of infection and hospital-acquired infections many recommendations and polices have been put in place on proper hand hygiene

This essay will be discussing how effective the hand washing technique has been in reducing infections in hospital. The hand washing technique has been around since the mid-1800s, helping to reduce both hospital and community acquired infections, such as MRSA and C-diff, which both can be passed on by touch. It will establish how effecting the hand washing technique is and how can it be more effective.

Antisepsis techniques have been around since the mid 1800s, pioneered by Ignaz Philip Semmelweis. Semmelweis determined puerperal infection was being transmitted by the hands of students to women giving birth. Semmelweis implemented a procedure that stated: any attending individual had to wash their hands in a mixture of chlorinated lime prior to caring for a patient. This action alone resulted in mortality rates dropping an estimated 94% within a year (Zoltán, 2007). In hospitals today, hand hygiene remains a staple in everyday practice, through the primary use of alcohol based hand sanitizers. However, it is estimated that at any point in time there are over 1.4 million cases of healthcare associated infections (HAI) (Ontario, 2016). Annually, in Canada alone, it is projected that eight thousand deaths occur in hospitals and associated health care facilities due to infections resulting from lack of proper hand hygiene (Ontario, 2016). Alcohol based hand sanitizer are a readily available and a time