The Importance Of Hand Hygiene On The Care Of Patients And Problems

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).

Fuller, C. Michie, S. Savage, J. McAteer, J. Besser, S. Charlett, A. Hayward, A. Cookson, B. Cooper, B. Duckworth, G. Jeanes, A. Roberts, J. Teare, L. Stone, S. (2012). The Feedback Intervention Trial - Improving hand-hygiene compliance in UK Healthcare Workers: A Stepped wedge cluster randomised Controlled Trial. PLoS One. 7 (10).

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) affect over 1.7 million patients each year, causing almost 100,000 deaths annually in the United States alone (Johnson, 2010). According to the World Health Organization, HAIs are the most frequent adverse event in the healthcare industry. Fortunately, most of these infections can be prevented with one single intervention, proper hand hygiene (“The Evidence,” n.d.). Four out of five pathogens that cause illness are spread by direct contact. Proper hand hygiene eliminates these pathogens and helps to prevent cross-contamination and HAIs (Linton, 2015; “Hand Hygiene,” n.d.). Reduction of cross-contamination and HAIs improves patient outcomes, increases employee wellness, and lowers health care costs. Adherence to proper hand hygiene is the single most important safety measure in the health care setting. However, for many years compliance to proper hand hygiene in the healthcare industry has been dismally low. New and inventive measures must be implemented to increase compliance to proper hand hygiene and lower the rate of hospital-acquired infections.

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.

One of the main problems is hand hygiene and evidence suggests that healthcare staff including nurses do not perform this task as often as they should nor do they use the proper procedure. Even though it is

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.

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

Hand hygiene is a general term that refers to any action of hand cleaning. This include disinfecting agent such as alcohol or soap and water. Hand Hygiene ought to be directed by healthcare professionals before seeing patients, after contact with organic liquids, before intrusive techniques, and in the wake of expelling gloves (Burns, Bradley, Weiner, 2012). The WHO offers a slight variety by suggesting five key moments when human services specialists ought to practice hand cleanliness: before patient contact, before an aseptic errand, after natural liquid presentation hazard, after patient contact, and after contact with patient environment. Intercessions included expanding sink or liquor based arrangement accessibility, instruction, and

“By washing our hands and having good hand hygiene we are showing the patients, their family and everyone around that you care enough about the well-being of the patients to make sure you are not

Within the essay I am going to discuss whether good hand hygiene practices are the single most important factor in preventing cross infection. Some may argue for this statement others against. Jeanes A (2005) refers to the NMC code of professional conduct (2004) who state that you must act to identify and minimise risk to patients and clients.

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.

Literature Review
The importance of establishing a proper behavioral pattern for healthcare workers concerning hand hygiene is underscored by some of the research encountered for the literature review. One such study of interest would seek to determine the conditions which have tended to produce habits considered to be positive and sanitary hand hygiene practices. The study by Sax et al (2007) was conducted for the purpose of examining the factors which induce preferred hand-washing techniques and frequency in healthcare workers. Projecting itself as a cross-sectional study design in which a questionnaire serves as the key data gathering instrument, the article by Sax gathers a broad sampling of perspectives on the issue of hand hygiene and the parameters which tend to be effective in encouraging it. The methodology of the study was the distribution of the survey questionnaire to a randomly selected population of a university-based teaching hospital. The survey would be self-administered and would be returned anonymously, with biographical details limited to those describing the individual respondent 's position within the hospital. The sample for the execution of this study would be drawn from the hospital 's personnel, with 1042 questionnaires being returned completed. The study reports this as a 35% return rate. The breakdown within this sample population amounted to 271 physicians, 629 nurses, and 141 nursing assistants. The findings would suggest certain majority

One recommendation for the healthcare setting is to invest in a hand hygiene reminder system. In this system, the employee would wear a lighted badge that senses when hand hygiene was completed, reminds with a sound when they forget and reports if they are noncompliant (O’Reilly, Kevin B.). Without proper hand hygiene and infection control, patients can get infections that could have previously been avoided (“Compliance: Two Hands at a Time”). These are called hospital-acquired infections, or healthcare-associated infections (HAI’s), and can lead to death, especially in hospitalized patients whose health is already compromised (“Forget to wash? Devices track hand washing adherence in hospitals”). Patient safety is a priority. HAI’s are prevented and safety is maintained by incorporating this hand hygiene reminder system into the infection control practices at Park Nicollet’s Methodist Hospital. This recommendation pertains to people such as nurses and doctors who provide direct patient care and also to the leaders of Park Nicollet who make the executive decisions. As an infection control nurse, I provide evidence of why this is important for the healthcare team. The role of the audience is to make a decision about whether this is something the hospital needs and support in the decision that is made. This report studies how the hand hygiene reminder systems work, how the advantages

This assignment will encompass how the results of the personal hygiene and susceptibility microbiology experiments provide a framework for the basis of the NICE Clinical Guidance (CG139) on Infection and how crucial the reasons for the hand wash protocol and hygiene is in all healthcare settings.