Implementing a Staff Hand Washing Program within an Acute Medical Unit
Research Details
There has been growing concerns among health workers on how to maintain a healthy environment at the work place. Hospital-acquired infections are among the most dangerous complications and they have been reported to claim the lives of many health workers. The major cause of hospital-acquired infection is failure by healthcare workers to observe hand hygiene. Hand hygiene involves washing one’s hands with soap and water or disinfecting them after making contact with sick persons or infected surfaces. There has been sloppiness in the compliance with hand hygiene among health workers (Lam, Lee, & Lau 2004).
Research Question
How can health workers be encouraged to adhere to hand hygiene recommendations in a health care unit?
Research Aims
• The research seeks to establish effective means of ensuring that health workers comply with hand hygiene recommendations.
• To create awareness among health workers on the importance of hand hygiene
Research Design
The research seeks to create awareness through training and putting up posters throughout the health unit, which will serve as guide to workers and individuals working or visiting it (Baker, Norton, & Flintoft 2004). The research will apply a quasi-experimental technique to determine the effects of observing hand hygiene with respect to disease prevention and development of a healthy work force. In addition, it will use the randomized cross over method to determine whether the culture in the health unit will be changed (Kretzer & Larson1998). It is expected that the posters will randomly influence the health workers to adhere to the hand hygiene recommendations (Marena et al. 2002).
Res...
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Marena, C, Lodola, L, Zecca, M, Bulgheroni, A, Carretto, E & Maserati, R 2002, ‘Assessment of handwashing practices with chemical and microbiologic methods’, American Journal of Infection Control, vol. 30, pp. 334-40.
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Summary: In this journal Deborah Ward speaks about how hand washing is only the first step in infection prevention and that there are many other steps that must be taken such as the use of sterile gloves. Mrs. Ward talks about client home care and how with these clients it is not always easy to keep a sterile environment. Deborah Ward explains how when using alcohol rubs is that they need to be used just as thoroughly as soap and water. While alcohol rubs are handy hand washing should still be taking place every time a nurse enters a patient's room. Mrs. Ward explains how as the nurse you should always be doing risk assessments for what form of personal protective equipment you should be utilizing while working with clients. She also explains
“The CDC is the primary developer of national infection control and prevention guidelines, often in collaboration with its Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, which is responsible for research and dissemination of the latest information for preventing disease transmission” (Griffis, 2013, p. 175). Infection control will continue to be a topic of discussion as long as germ transmission is still happening. Among these studies is the concern the frequent nonadherence to contact precautions is a huge issue that many studies are still very concerned about (Jessee & Mion, 2013, p. 966). The writer is also concerned with the blatant disregard for hand hygiene that appears to be happening in the medical field. What about what is best for the patient. Do the people that do not use proper hand hygiene not understand how important it
Better infection control practices and hand washing techniques utilized by the general population help to reduce the incidences of easily avoidable conditions, such as impetigo caused by staphylococcal and streptococcal infections. It may be beneficial for public health departments to recommend teachers to teach students on how to properly wash hands and clean high contact fomites.
When overcoming concerns and challenges of the current state of hand hygiene compliance, many new strategies must be implemented to promote and progress hand hygiene behavior. One strategy is to continue to observe nurses using recommended practice using multimodal and multidisciplinary technology. Another strategy to increase compliance exists in making hand hygiene an essential part of nursing culture and creating an institutional priority where administrations provide appropriate support and financial resources (Pfoh, Dy, & Engineer, 2013).
This literature review will analyze and critically explore four studies that have been conducted on hand hygiene compliance rates by Healthcare workers (HCWs). Firstly, it will look at compliance rates for HCWs in the intensive care units (ICU) and then explore the different factors that contribute to low hand hygiene compliance. Hospital Acquired infections (HAI) or Nosocomial Infections appear worldwide, affecting both developed and poor countries. HAIs represent a major source of morbidity and mortality, especially for patients in the ICU (Hugonnet, Perneger, & Pittet, 2002). Hand hygiene can be defined as any method that destroys or removes microorganisms on hands (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). According to the World Health Organization (2002), a HAI can be defined as an infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other health care facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. The hands of HCWs transmit majority of the endemic infections. As
I should comfort the nurse and ask to do hand hygiene and taught advantages of hand hygiene. Marram (2009) stated that healthcare professional team needs to constant communicate to plan strategies, solve problems and evaluate progress (pg.28-30). I learn that health professional team needs excellent interaction to provide excellent care of resident. According to Smith (2015), “leadership can successful by fair conversation with healthcare provider, staff, p-patient, regulator and insurance company. Without conversation, there is no management, without management; there is no success in our healthcare system”.
-Reinforce hand hygiene messages; Health Care Workers gain knowledge about the importance of hand hygiene and its role in prevention of healthcare-associated infections.
As a nursing student, it was very helpful to learn that hand hygiene – despite that we are still novices at this path – must be executed with no flaws. And this led me to recognize what areas of the hand should be covered in the technique: palm and back of the hand, thumbs, between fingers, wrists. All health professionals must wash their hands in order to avoid the transmission of microbes among patients or from an external environment to a patient. I also noticed that how missing a specific area of the hand – like thumbs – disrupts the whole idea of the process, since its purpose is to eliminate all microbes, and if any area is left out, the microorganisms from this area can migrate to another and therefore, contaminate the
It is imperative to explore leadership factors that influence nurse use of foam hand sanitizer or soap and water appropriately when cleaning their hands as they enter and leave each patients room. Those in leadership must determine if a higher level of involvement from leadership equals more frequent hand washing from other nursing staff. Leadership must also ensure that the nursing staff understands that implications of not washing their hands after seeing each patient. When each member of the nursing team understands the importance of hand washing, the unit they work on will function better and their patients will have better outcomes.
Employees should not assume that the cleaning crew has been meticulous in eradicating germs. Phones’ and other items on the desktop are rarely cleaned or disinfected. Encourage employees to use disinfecting wipes in their personal workstation. Make wipes and hand sanitizers readily available for each workstation, especially when shared by different shifts.
The systematic review; Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care, conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration investigated inventions to improve hand hygiene compliance within patient care. The review included 2 original studies with an additional two new studies (Gould & Moralejo et al., 2010). Throughout the review it was affirmed that among hand hygiene is an indispensable method in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections (HAI), the compliance among nurses’ is inadequate. Nurses are identified within the public as dependable and trustworthy in a time of vulnerability due to their specialised education and skills (Hughes, 2008). Thus, it is imperative that evidence based practice is cond...
Medical asepsis plays an integral role in infection control within a health care facility. It includes procedures used to decrease and prevent direct contact with blood or bodily fluids and emphasizes keeping the environment clean on a regular basis (Curchoe, Astle, & Hobbs, 2014). In order to achieve optimal health, individuals depend on practices and techniques that control and ultimately prevent the transmission of infection. These practices and techniques can help avoid the transmission of infections by creating an environment that protects both health care workers and patients from communicable diseases. Good hand hygiene has been stressed as the single most important measure to prevent cross-infection to patients in health care facilities
The focus of health care is and has always been, practicing good hygiene, living a healthy lifestyle, and having a positive attitude reduces the chance of getting ill. Although there is not much prevention we can take for some of the diseases but we can certainly practice good hand hygiene to prevent infection and its ill effects. Research proves that hand washing is surely the most easy and effective way to prevent infection in health care. The question for this research: Is Hand washing an effective way to prevent infection in health care? It led to the conclusion that due to the high acuity, high patient: staff ratio, and lack of re evaluation certain units in the health care facilities cannot adhere to correct hand washing guidelines. Hand
Fox, C., Wavra, T., Drake, D. A., Mulligan, D., Jones, L., Bennett, Y. P., & ... Bader, M. K. (2015). USE OF A PATIENT HAND HYGIENE PROTOCOL TO REDUCE HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS AND IMPROVE NURSES ' HAND WASHING. American Journal Of Critical Care, 24(3), 216-224 9p. doi:10.4037/ajcc2015898
Using good hand hygiene is a start to making sure the patient environment is safe. “Handwashing is a fundamental principle and practice in the prevention, control, and reduction of healthcare-acquired infections” (Bjerke, 2004, p. 1). Hand hygiene aids in infection control, being as most hospital acquired infections are due to improper or absence of hand hygiene. Fox, Wavra, Drake, Mulligan, Jones, Bennett, and Bader (2015) suggest that 2.5 million deaths occur from hospital-acquired infections and of those deaths, 90,000 were preventable if the workers in healthcare would have used proper hand hygiene. Piece of mind is a mutual benefit of using hand hygiene in the healthcare setting. A nurse benefits from using hand hygiene because it would reduce the risk of that nurse contaminating other patients when going from patient room to patient room. A patient benefits from using hand hygiene because it reduces the risk of that patient spreading infection from one part of the body to another. Piece of mind is the benefit for knowing that patients and nurses are protected in healthcare facilities by using hand hygiene. Patients and nurses will benefit from using hand hygiene because it is a simple way to aid in keeping the individual healthy. The hands carry many germs and constant adherence to good hand hygiene will decrease the risk of people catching illnesses and contaminating shared surfaces (door handles, tables, and