Hand Hygiene

Norovirus is a healthcare associated infection which can cause morbidity and mortality (Weber et al. 2010, pg. 25). Norovirus is spread through ingesting food or liquids that are contaminated with norovirus and also from touching or being in contact with objects and people who are contaminated with pathogens from norovirus (Weber et al. 2010, pg. 25). According to Weber et al. 2010 (pg. 26), approximately 20%-40% of hospital acquired infections are because of cross infections through the healthcare worker’s hands. A simple and effective solution to lowering the risk of spreading Reginald’s infection around the hospital is hand hygiene by healthcare workers and even visitors within the hospital

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.

A campaign called, “Clean Hands Save Lives” endorsed by the CDC in the year 2015 put an emphasis on five simple steps to avoid or reduce illnesses. The steps are the following and to be carried out in that order: wet, lather, scrub, rinse, and dry (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, pg. 458). In addition to performing hand hygiene, gloves must also be used when handling any type of specimen. The use of PPE or Personal protective equipment is important as it protects the wearer from any type of injury or infection. (PPE) Healthcare facilities disclose the type of contact precaution outside a patient’s door. For example, a label for Airborne Precautions indicate that a respiratory protection device (N95 respirator) must be worn in order to enter the room and while interacting with the patient. A room with Droplet Precautions requires the use of a mask or respirator. On the other hand, a room with Contact Precautions indicates the use of gloves and gowns, and a room with category Protective Environment requires protection with HEPA filtration, mask, gloves, and gowns (Potter et al., pg 459).

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.

Strong responsibility by all stakeholders comprising frontline staff, managers and healthcare leaders, to include hand hygiene as a fundamental segment of patient and staff safety.

“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

Reducing the risk of healthcare associated infections can be implemented a few different ways. One way of prevention is proper hand hygiene. By setting this goal to improve the compliance of hand hygiene, employees will ensure a lower percent of healthcare associated infections. This not only reduces the risk for infections but it ultimately reduces the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (May 5: Hand Hygiene Day, 2014) “About 2 million people in the United States obtain infections that are resistant to antibiotics and over 22,000 people die from these infections every year” (May 5: Hand Hygiene Day, 2014). Hand hygiene isn’t just about washing your hands; there are important precise steps to follow. The Joint Commission has issued specific guidelines to follow when performing hand hygiene and require organizations to comply with the guidelines to remain accredited. (Joint Commission, n.d.) Many aspects of hand hygiene being monitored are for example when to wash, how long to wash for, which cleaning agents to use, when it is appropriate to use disposable gloves, and whether or not it is acceptable to wear

In this essay the focus will be on the significance of hand hygiene within the care of patients and problems relating to the compliance of this. The essay will explore legislations such as The NHS Constitutions YEAR, Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct YEAR and the 6Cs of nursing, focusing on the relevance of these in relation to hand hygiene practice.

Hand hygiene has been identified as one of the simplest, but the most significant measure to prevent and control the spread of hospital acquired infections (WHO, 2009). Furthermore, it is also considered a cheap measurement for infection control (Allegranzi et al., 2007). Hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers is underutilised and interventions to develop it are absent sustainability in developing countries (Gould et al., 2008). In the mid-1880s, the Austrian physician Ignaz P. Semmelweis was the first doctor who reported the critical role of the hands of the healthcare providers in transmitting hospital acquired infections (Allegranzi and Pittet, 2008). Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) remain a big challenge to the patient safety (WHO, 2009). It affects hundreds of million individuals worldwide ever year (Allegranzi et al., 2007). Healthcare-associated infection is regarded as one of the main reasons for long staying longer in hospitals, increasing the cost of the patient treatment, and causing higher morbidity and mortality rates (Mathai

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

PPE acts as a barrier between the infectious materials and the skin or mucosal membranes. When properly used, the equipment will effectively block the transmission of infectious materials. Personal protective equipment is very effective barriers, but it may not always be practical to protect the whole body when dealing with medical wastes. Furthermore, when selecting the best PPE, there should also be a balance between the best possible protection against infection while allowing health workers to provide the best possible health care to patients. Therefore, to get the best protection, PPE needs to be used with other effective work practices and with the best training to minimize the spread of infection and to protect health care workers from occupational

As a future medical practitioner, it is of paramount importance that I lead by example, work to influence and encourage fellow health professionals to practice good hand hygiene. The increase in nosocomial infections reflects poorly on the health care system, not only it is costly, strenuous on patients and unethical, but essentially, it reflects poorly on us as doctors, our morals and our practice. It is up to us, the future doctors, to change this to see a transformation in our attitudes and actions towards hand washing.

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.

NICE (NICE, 2012) guidelines for prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections also state that hands must be sanitised at the point immediately before any direct contact with patients, immediately after the episode of care, immediately after exposure to bodily fluids, immediately after any contact with patient 's surroundings that could potentially result in contamination and immediately after the removal of gloves,

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