Assignment: HAND HYGIENE RESEARCH STUDY.
Assignment: HAND HYGIENE RESEARCH STUDY.
Introduction
Naturally, our hands have germs on them. Some live on the hands while others are picked up when touching surfaces or objects such as chairs, tables, and beds and so on when doing our day-to-day activities. This is normal and does not pose a risk. However, as you go about your nursing role in care settings, your hands pick up a lot of germs, and they can cause harm when passed to another individual like to a patient or a client. Hand hygiene gets rid of most of these types of germs. Hand hygiene involves washing hands and drying them thoroughly. In this paper, I will summarize a research study I did in topic one and provide ethical considerations of the study.
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Background
The central endeavor of this study is to analyze and evaluate the risk involved when healthcare providers fail to observe hand hygiene and important of installing hand sanitizer dispensers in appropriate locations in the healthcare setting (Cure, 2015). The purpose of this study is to educate healthcare providers on the importance and benefits of observing hand hygiene during care delivery to themselves, their colleagues and patients.
This research topic is very important to nursing. When healthcare providers fail to observe appropriate hand hygiene, they are at increased risks of getting infections, spreading them to their fellow providers and patients. These healthcare providers can be infected with surgical site infections, bloodstream infections, gastrointestinal infections, chest or respiratory infections and urinary tract infections or spread them to their colleagues or patients. This study exposes the risks of not adhering to hand hygiene practices and emphasize on the importance of hand sanitizer dispensers on hand hygiene (Cure, 2015). Therefore, this study should be deemed essential and relevant to nursing practice.
Moreover, patients usually carry microbes without portraying any sign of an infection. Therefore, healthcare providers can pass infections from one patient to another. The main objective of this article under study is to explore hand hygiene, its importance, and risks involved if hand hygiene is not observed appropriately. The purpose of this research work is to emphasize on the importance of hand hygiene in the healthcare settings.
Methods of study
The author of the study conducted a systematic review of the qualitative studies on hand hygiene. The author laid down the behavior of nurses and other healthcare providers of not observing hand hygiene practices. The authors conducted qualitative research to investigate the risks that nurses expose to patients when they fail to comply with the recommended hand hygiene practices they are expected to follow.
The authors compose the research work based on searching for electronic databases and evaluating them. Some of the databases that were helpful to this research work include Social Policy and Practice, British Nursing Index and American Nurses Associations. Relevant and vital papers were also searched and assessed. The strategy used in searching combined effective methodological terms for qualitative research and particular terms of hand hygiene.
The researchers used observations, face-to-face qualitative interviews, as well as focus groups which were published in the peer-reviewed articles as samples. They also assessed the patients’ perspective and opinions on nurses’ hand hygiene. The researchers also included quantitative questionnaire analysis and patients’ telephone interviews. Furthermore, the researchers included interviews of patients who were infected with various types of infections by nurses who fail to adhere to hand hygiene practices. These researchers also considered source materials in different languages as samples. This is because the languages of the researchers were not a barrier to the study. They also included modes of translation within the research study framework.
Data were analyzed and synthesized using steps which are recommended by United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for research methods and program guidance. Complying with the technique, reproducible and systematic techniques were provided regarding narrative synthesis and for promoting transparency when it comes to reporting and evaluating the robustness of the study outcomes. The researchers used thematic analysis and textual summary to combine the outcomes. They also adopted the “one-sheet-paper method” using textual summaries as well as full text of papers if needed.
Results of the study
The study found that the primary cause of healthcare providers’ hand unhygienic practices is due to lack of enough hand sanitizer dispensers in hospitals. In fact, some healthcare organizations did not have hand sanitizer dispensers — this inconvenienced healthcare providers as they cannot keep on getting out to wash their hands in the washrooms now and then while patients are waiting for their services. The study also found that some hospitals have adequate hand sanitizer dispensers which are placed in strategic locations but nurses still comply with 50 percent or less of the recommended hand hygiene practices (Cure, 2015). They put their patients, their colleagues and themselves of risks of being infected with infections associated with medical equipment and medical environment.
The outcomes of the study are entirely relevant to nursing practitioners. From the results, nurses and other healthcare providers can understand the importance of hand hygiene and the risks of not adhering to hand hygiene practices in the healthcare setting. Nurses and other healthcare providers should understand the recommended hand hygiene practices and adhere to them to improve their safety, the safety of their colleagues and their patients. Hand hygiene also keeps the care environment clean. The article also helps hospital management and administrators on the importance of mounting hand sanitizer dispensers in appropriate locations within the hospital premises (Cure, 2015). If healthcare providers increase their hand hygiene from the current below 50 % of the recommended times, the number of patients who get infected with healthcare-associated infection can reduce.
Ethical considerations
This study depended on both primary and secondary sources in electronic databases form. There is no respondent/participant who was directly involved in this research study and the study processes. Therefore, the study did not demand any ethical approval.
Conclusion
The study adhered to formatting and norms of good qualitative research study. The data collection methods were indisputable and transparent. The research methodology, in its entirety, was free from errors. The outcomes of the study are relevant to the nursing practice as healthcare providers can learn a lot from it regarding hand hygiene. Healthcare administration can also learn from the study as they can install or mount hand sanitizer dispensers at appropriate locations in their hospitals. The study is a good source of information for hand hygiene and why it is essential in care setting.
Reference
Cure, L. &. (2015). Major article: Effect of hand sanitizer location on hand hygiene compliance. AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control, 43917-921. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2015.05.013.
Chan, B. P., Homa, K., & Kirkland, K. B. (2013). Effect of varying the number and location of alcohol-based hand rub dispensers on usage in a general inpatient medical unit. Infection Control And Hospital Epidemiology, 34(9), 987-989. doi:10.1086/671729
Assignment: HAND HYGIENE RESEARCH STUDY.\
Assignment: HAND HYGIENE RESEARCH STUDY.