“Why is Hand hygiene in infection control essential for our hospitals?”
Hand hygiene has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to prevent infection amongst our hospitals. A serious blood stream infection caused by a common bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus has a 25-30% mortality rate; this is higher than the mortality rate for people that have had a stroke or heart attack. Hospital infections are preventable.
Hand hygiene and staphylococcus infection are the main ideas and topics studied within this booklet, with hand hygiene being the main focus and Staphylococcus aureus blood stream infection rates being data to support the necessity for hand hygiene.
http://www.thesingingsunflower.com/2012/06/hand-washing-soaps-antibacterial-soaps.html
What is infection control? And why is this so important?
Bacteria and infections surround us on a daily basis and can also contribute to the spread of infection and disease. Infections can be potentially harmful to the human body and therefore need to be “controlled and prevented”. In facilities such as hospitals these germs can spread faster due to the amount of bacteria and sick patients surrounding these facilities. This means the control of these infections are to be a high priority. UKCC 2007-2014
In health care facilities many sick patients are treated in isolated or confined spaces. This means that many microorganisms are present in these areas. Patients come in contact with many health care workers (HCW) who can potentially help the spread of these microorganisms and infections between their patients.
“Effective infection prevention and control involves work practices that put a stop to the
Spread of infections including:
• Standard infection prevention and c...
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What have Health care facilities learnt about successful interventions?
Elizabeth Pfoh, MPH, Sydney Dy, MD, MSc, and Cyrus Engineer, DrPH. Says:
Successful hand hygiene educational programs have proven to:
-Reinforce hand hygiene messages; Health Care Workers gain knowledge about the importance of hand hygiene and its role in prevention of healthcare-associated infections.
- Health care facilities have discovered that Interventions should teach and include different types of methods.
4) In the community and Media:
Throughout healthcare facilities you will often see signs and displays regarding hand hygiene (see figures below) these signs are displayed to educate the public in this field. Health care facilities hope that patients and visitors will acknowledge these signs and put these procedures into practice. –SA Health
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”.
Washing your hands properly with soap is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the number of germs, or infections you can spread. The issue that needs to be addressed, is how can we promote good hand washing habits efficiently, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. For this reason, Kohler will be introducing the “Hygieia” in Q3 of 2016. The Hygieia is a hands free motion detecting sink that dispenses water, and soap simultaneously.
Health tips. Hand hygiene. (2009). Mayo Clinic Health Letter (English Ed.), 27(12), 3. Retrieved from
The significant increase in antibiotic resistance amongst pathogens is making it very difficult to successfully treat infections, especially in intensive care units (ICU’s). Prevention of the spread of infection among patients within the hospitals is fast becoming amongst the most important methods for controlling infections. This requires the identification of the different acquisition routes, that is, routes by which bacterial colonization occurs. In this article, the authors analyzed the relative importance of various bacterial acquisition routes that resulted in colonization of the bacteria using data from individual patients.[1] This article was chosen because of the impact it can have on the healthcare system if the knowledge obtained from the algorithm regarding the most prevalent colonization routes in hospitals can help in the preventing spread of infections. Also the ability of the algorithm to incorporate specific patient characteristics makes it both novel and appealing.
In this day and age, the general population assumes that when someone is hospitalized the risk for getting a new infection while in the hospital is minimal. However, in the United States the risk for gaining a hospital-associated infection has become a serious concern and a costly one at that. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that hospital-associated infections have cost an estimate of 35.7 to 45 billion dollars to United States hospital when 20% of these infections could have been preventable with the correct interventions. One of the most common hospital-associated infections has become hospital-acquired pneumonia. (Scott II, 2009) This type of pneumonia is easily preventable if healthcare workers would comply with a few simple interventions that should already be in place in their facility. While these interventions have been proven effective, full compliance is still lacking and in the end it is being left to up the health care staff to become aware of the results.
“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
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
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
“Failure to attend to hand hygiene has serious consequences: it has a negative effect on patient safety and the quality of patients’ lives, as well as on their confidence in healthcare delivery. However, the prevalence of hand hygiene omission is still high” (Canadian Disease Control, 2016 p 1). Washing hands before and after patient contact seems like a simple solution to prevent the spread of bacteria between patients. But it is not as simple as it seems.According to new CDC data, “approximately one in 25 patients acquires a health care-associated infection during their hospital care, adding up to about 722,000 infections a year. Of these, 75,000 patients die from their infections ( CDC, 2016 p 1).” Leaving a finacial burden on Canada’s health care
Secondary:Curtis, L. (2008). Prevention of hospital-acquired infections: review of non-pharmacological interventions. Journal of Hospital Infection, 69(3), 204-219. Revised 01/20
One of the most significant current discussions in nursing evidence-based practice is the effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions in reducing hospital-acquired infections. Much debate continues into the uncertainty that exists between the correlation of interventions and increased hand hygiene practices. This essay critically examines the relationship between interventions and the dubious increase in hand hygiene compliance by healthcare professionals by using the framework of evidence based practice to evaluate previous literature, identify barriers and note mechanisms used to measure effectiveness of interventions.
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
“Researchers in London estimate that if everyone routinely washed their hands, a million deaths a year could be prevented” (“Hygiene Fast Facts”, 2013, p. 1). Hands are the number one mode of transmission of pathogens. Hands are also vital in patient interaction, and therefore should be kept clean to protect the safety of patients and the person caring for the patient. Hand hygiene is imperative to professional nursing practice because it prevents the spread of pathogens, decreases chances of hospital-acquired infections, and promotes patient safety. There is a substantial amount of evidence that shows why hand hygiene is important in healthcare
Avoiding infection or, at least, breaking the chain of transmission is vital in any setting, but more so in healthcare environments where infections and vulnerable hosts are moving under the same roof. What needs to be done, then?