Hand Hygiene Practice

In the Operating room, it is expected that the environment should remain aseptic especially during a surgical procedure. This aseptic technique should not be limited to the environment only, but the operating room personnel should also be included. One of the effective way for a healthcare personnel to ensure aseptic technique is by hand hygiene. This knowledge is widely known by healthcare staffs because it helps prevent the risk for healthcare associated infection (HAI). However, some perioperative personnel are not compliance with hand hygiene practice. When a patient comes to the hospital for a surgical procedure, he or she expects the surgery to be completed successfully with little or no complication. However, healthcare associated

These group of people work together in the OR for a short period of time to ensure a successful procedure. They are continuously and actively in contact with the patient during this period. Therefore, a lack of hand hygiene in this setting can be disastrous to the patient since these patients are at high risk for infection. There are numerous possible barriers to a peri-operative personnel’s lack of hand hygiene practice. These barriers include “not thinking about it, forgetting, skin irritation, a lack of role models, or a lack of a safety culture” (Spruce, 2013, p. 450). Other barriers include lack of knowledge regarding HAI, patient outcome and hand hygiene (Erichsen Andersson et.al., 2018, p. 4). Since the perioperative staffs does not keep track of the consequences of their action, they will continue with their low compliance of hand

Since these staffs are only with the patient for the duration of the surgical procedure, they lack the general knowledge about post-operative infections complication. This result to “a false sense of security, and so the drive for change was initially absent” (Erichsen Andersson et.al., 2018, p. 6).

For these interventions to be acted upon, there is a need for multiple hand hygiene stations that are actively working in the OR. For example, OR hand sanitizer dispensers should never be empty and there should be always be soap and water available at the hand washing basin area. If these are not present, then peri-operative staff will not be motivated to go greater length (like walking to a farther washing area) to wash their hands. However, if this is present it would encourage the personnel which in the long run, increases hand hygiene compliance.

In conclusion, hand hygiene is the most important strategy in preventing Hospital acquired infection. The goal is to prevent the spread of infection while ensuring safety of the patient. Since perioperative personnel are in constant contact with the patient who is at the greatest risk for infection, the importance of hand hygiene becomes pertinent. So, why does some operating room personnel omit the practice of hand hygiene when they know its