Non Compliance Of Correct Hand Hygiene

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

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).

Keeping our hands clean is one of the most effcient and important steps we can do as humans to avoid getting sick or spreading germs to other people. Unwashed hands spread many diseases such as the flue, E. coli, and salmonella. Unfortunately, hand hygiene is still one of today’s most leading causes of infection in health care facilities. The risk of clinicians, patients, and visitors not complying with hand hygiene protocols creates a practice problem for nurses and their patient care. The cause of health care infections, also known as, health care-associated infections (HAIs) are increasing along with the rise of the inability to control or treat infections that are multi-drug resistant. Lack of proper hand hygiene is a major problem in clinical settings sourcing from critical care divisions where the most contaminations are prevalent. This paper will discuss how hand hygiene affects the nursing process and solutions of how to better prevent HAIs within the nursing scope of practice.

Atul Gawande explains the single biggest problem facing hospitals in the spread of infection in his novel, Better. This is expressed in his conversation with the infection control team, where it is said that “their greatest difficulty is getting clinicians like me to do the one thing that consistently halts the spread of infection: wash our hands. (Gawande, 2007, 14)” He notes that diligence, one of his three core requirements for success in medicine, plays a huge role in enforcing a policy like handwashing. While everyone knows hand washing is important, especially in a hospital, letting health care professionals ignore the practice and make their own decisions about its criticality harms the whole population.

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 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

The topic was chosen for a number of reasons, including the great need for improving hand hygiene, to preserve and promote positive care of patients, looking into issues which may hinder hand hygiene compliance.

The Royal College of Nursing lists hand hygiene as one of its ‘Standard infection control precautions.’ These essential principles provide the foundation of safe practice, thus protecting staff and clients from harmful micro-organisms that may cause infection. (2012, p. 8) HCAI’s (healthcare associated infections) are one of the most important public health issues worldwide and cause hundreds of unnecessary fatalities annually. The prevalence of these infections is highest an

recommendations for improvement of hand hygiene compliance: A cross-sectional factorial survey study. American Journal of Infection Control 45(6), 620-625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2016.12.024

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.

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

Handwashing has been clearly proven to prevent different diseases and is one of the most beneficial ways to protect others including oneself from infections. As simple as hand washing with plain or antimicrobial soaps appears, it has been projected that it can cut down hospital acquired infections. Hand hygiene can decrease the risk of respiratory infections by 16% (CDC, 2016). The CDC published in 2016, significant reduction at the national level close to all infections included compared to baseline data (CDC, 2016). Moreover, reductions in hospital on-site MRSA 13%, bacteremia and a 8% with C. difficile infections based on 2014, HAI Data and Statics (CDC, 2016). Again, the compliance rates when it comes to hand hygiene hospitals the law mandates to report their findings. In 2011 the statics showed, one in twenty-five hospital patients have had an HAI, with 772,000 HAI in the major acute hospitals in the United States (CDC, 2016). Various parameters are said to have an effect on hand hygiene compliance. Furthermore, it is estimated 30,000 deaths each year from nosocomial infections (CDC, 2016). According to CDC, one of them is said to be the time required for procedure education. The hospital personnel has been recommended to re-educate, provided with hand hygiene products that are effective. These entail the alcohol-based hand rubs. Alcohol sanitizers are antiseptic products with some level of alcohol ranging between 60 to 85 percent. This is meant to avoid the spread of pathogens (WHO, 2016). A shift in hand hygiene agent had been said to be beneficial for the hospitals which have not only exhibited a high workload, but also a great demand of for hand hygiene which can cause laziness and rush to wash their

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

Barriers to hand hygiene compliance include factors such as forgetfulness, skin irritation, poor education and lack of resources. Another potential barrier is the presence of the phenomenon known as the “Hawthorne Effect” in which workers temporarily actin a different way than they would normally because they know they are being watched (Winship, S., & McClunie – Trust, P., 2016, p.2). When healthcare professionals are aware that they are being observed, they are more likely to comply with hand hygiene guidelines. This is particularly true when healthcare workers are attending to patients in the hallway.

The solution to increasing hand-washing compliance does not have a simple, one fix-all answer. Instead, there are a few small ways that can contribute to increasing our hand-washing compliance. Some LHSC locations have made significant progress in compliance rates however, there is still room to improve towards the goal of 100 per cent compliance. Figure 1 provides a graphical representation of the average hand-washing compliance rates for moments 1 and 4 in relation to LHSC’s goal. The compliance rates displayed are shown as an average for the University Hospital and Victoria Hospital.