Discussion: Hand hygiene (HH)

Hand hygiene (HH) is an essential tool in reducing the spread of infections among patients and the healthcare professionals in the clinical setting. Multiple studies have however showed that healthcare professionals do not comply with the HH guidelines provided by the World Health Organization. This has led to increased healthcare related infections resulting in increased mortality rates. There are various factors that lead to non-compliance of the World Health Organization guidelines such as work environment and behavioral motivational factors. This shows that more needs to do in creating awareness among healthcare professionals about the importance of hand hygiene and patient safety (Anna, & Sobala, 2013).

PICOT Statement

For patients and healthcare workers in the hospital (p) does hand washing using soap and water (I) compared to an alcohol hand-based rub (C) reduce hospital acquired infection (O) within a period of stay in the hospital (T).

Evidence Based solution

Multiple studies show that hand washing protocol in the healthcare setting is very effectual in reducing healthcare related infections. The practice of cleaning hand before and after attending patients can help to reduce the spread of germs in hospitals. Healthcare professionals wash their hands more than half times they should on average (Deochand & Deochand, 2016). This increases the chances of spreading healthcare acquired infection (Deochand & Deochand, 2016). While hand washing protocol is useful, alcohol-based solution is more effective as it kills most of the germs that can be transmitted in the healthcare setting (Deochand & Deochand, 2016). Since alcohol-based solution is a bit expensive, patients and healthcare workers should reduce the spread of germs by complying with the hand washing protocol (Deochand & Deochand, 2016).

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Nursing Intervention

Nurses interact with patients more often than other healthcare professionals and this exposes them to hospital acquired infections. For this reason, nurses should ensure all their practices are based on patient education, nursing research and are evidence based. Nurses should apply universal precautions to ensure they work in a safe environment (Sung-Ching et al., 2013). Under the universal precaution guidelines, nurse practitioners must wear protective gear before coming into contact with any patient (Sung-Ching et al., 2013). Nurses must also wash their hands before and after interacting with patients. Alcohol based solution can be used as a substitute (Sung-Ching et al., 2013).

Patient care

Patients are very vulnerable to hospital acquired infections. Healthcare providers should create awareness among patients about the importance of hand hygiene. Patients must clean their hands regularly in the healthcare setting. They should also ask those people visiting them to ensure that they clean their hand before visiting and after living patient wards. This ensures that visitors to not spread diseases to the patients and also the patients do not infect those visiting them. Healthcare workers must put the necessary measures to facilitate the hand washing protocol (Chatfield et al., 2016). Discussion: Hand hygiene (HH)

Healthcare agency

The healthcare agency must ensure their facilities have enough hand washing points to facilitate hand washing protocol. Patients and healthcare professionals will not be able to clean their hands as required if there are not enough areas designated for hand washing. Healthcare providers should also provide alcohol-based solutions in case there is any issue to do with the designated hand washing points. The agency should also ensure that all patients understand the importance of HH while in the healthcare setting. This plays a significant role in reducing the spreading of healthcare related infections (Dyson et al., 2013). Healthcare agencies should also train their healthcare professionals to increase compliance to the hand washing protocol (Dyson et al., 2013).

Nursing practice

Combining hand washing protocol and alcohol-based solutions can help prevent most of the hospital acquired infections increasing patient safety and better overall patient outcomes (Sendall, McCosker & Halton, 2019). When patient maintain hand hygiene it will be difficult for them to spread hospital acquired infection. The same applies to healthcare professionals. A safe healthcare environment depends on the ability of both the patients and healthcare professionals to comply with the hand washing protocol. Increasing awareness of the importance of HH in the hospitals may increase compliance to the WHO guidelines reducing the spread of infections (Sendall, McCosker & Halton, 2019).

References

Anna, G. P & Sobala, W. (2013). Observance of hand washing procedures performed by the medical personnel before patient contact part 1 Retrieved from international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health 2013

Chatfield, S. L., Nolan, R., Crawford, H., & Hallam, J. S. (2016). Experiences of hand hygiene among acute care nurses: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. SAGE open medicine, 4, 2050312116675098.

Deochand, N., & Deochand, M. E. (2016). Brief Report on Hand-Hygiene Monitoring Systems: A Pilot Study of a Computer-Assisted Image Analysis Technique. Journal of environmental health, 78(10).

Dyson, J., Lawton, R., Jackson, C., & Cheater, F. (2013). Development of a theory-based instrument to identify barriers and levers to best hand hygiene practice among healthcare practitioners. Implementation Science, 8(1), 111.

Sendall, M. C., McCosker, L. K., & Halton, K. (2019). Cleaning Staff’s Attitudes about Hand Hygiene in a Metropolitan Hospital in Australia: A Qualitative Study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(6), 1067.

Sung-Ching, P., Tien, K. L., Hung, I., Yu-Jiun, L., Wang-Huei, S., Wang, M. J., & Yee-Chun, C. (2013). Compliance of Health Care Workers with Hand Hygiene Practices: Independent Advantages of Overt and Covert Observers. PLoS One, 8(1), e53746. Discussion: Hand hygiene (HH)