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Importance of hand hygiene in hospitals
Importance of hand hygiene in hospitals
Hand hygiene implications for nursing practice
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The Effects of Hand Hygiene in Healthcare
Ke’la Carter
Baker University School of Nursing “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
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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
Nursing is both a profession and discipline. The terms profession and discipline are interchangeable in Nursing and education today. Profession comes from Latin meaning, “Public declaration ("utc.edu," 2014, p. 4). This is the drive for nurses to have the commitment of caring for patients. Discipline, also a Latin word means both teaching and knowledge. Thus, providing nurses the need for knowledge to care and teach patients. There are many different frameworks which nurses go and learn by. Otterbein’s tapestry of caring contains six components that are intermixed into the education that we pride ourselves as nursing students on. The mission, values and purpose of the education given to students, prepare them for their nursing profession can be based on the following: caring, commitment, compassion, conscience, confidence, competence and conduct.
“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
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
In the past two decades, there has been a push for appropriate staff to client ratios. However, measuring client needs and nursing efforts have been around since 1922 (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606). The earliest recorded effort was by the New York Academy of Medicine. Superintendents and nurses from ten training schools documented the time spent providing bedside care. From complied information, the researchers revealed each client required an average of five hours and four minutes of care in a 24-hour period. From these observations, they evaluated staffing issues in New York City. At that time, none of the hospitals were sufficiently staffed (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606).
“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
As health advocates, nurses have a responsibility to communicate the importance of hand hygiene to their patients, through informing and enabling the practice of hand sanitising, along with ensuring patients are able to continue to have their personal hygiene needs met while in
Self-care has a very different meaning for people. It varies from person to person and can be based on age, gender, religion, occupation, and their type of lifestyle that they live. For myself, my self-care has changed since starting nursing school and I now know have to look at it in terms of nursing. Although my self-care has not changed substantially I now have to realize that being a nurse, I will have more responsibility’s and will be taking care of others and I cannot take care of others until I take care of myself. Self-care is very important for many reasons; in my opinion a healthy person in mind, body and soul is a happy person. You cannot take care of others if you yourself are not healthy and happy.
... germs were being transmitted? Hand hygiene itself has made a major impact of the infection prevention and healthier patients. Improvements in hand hygiene resulted in reductions in gastrointestinal illness of 31% and reductions in respiratory illness of 21%. ( American Journal of Public Health). It is very important to know that you have to wash your hands before walking into and exiting the patient's room.
This report presents the analysis of an experiment conducted in order to investigate two critical methods of controlling the transfer of microbes, which are hand washing and disinfection. People live in the presence of an innumerable amount of microbes every day, and they can be found anywhere and anyplace, from everyday objects like doorknobs to the surfaces of human bodies. When working in a health care facility, it is crucial to prevent the contamination of sterile environments, which can otherwise lead to the spread of microbes. Contamination is what ultimately results in the spread of unwanted disease and infection in patients, leading to life- threatening situations. The two most common ways to prevent the transmission
Maintaining clean hands is a major important step in preventing getting sick and spreading germs to others. Washing your hands can protect against infectious material ("Hospital ETool: Healthcare Wide Hazards - Infection" ). A lot of diseases and other illness are spread by not properly washing hands. Think of what you touch in a day. From the door knob, to your cell phone, to papers, to faucets, to other people hands and so on. We are constantly touching something. Then what do we do in between touching things, we touch our eyes, nose, and mouth without even acknowledging we do. Your eyes, nose, mouth, are ways germs can enter the body and make us sick. Germs can get into your food and drinks from people who prepare or consume them and their hands could be unwashed. Germs can travel and spread from hand to object, object to another hand such as on door knobs, handrails, tab...
Whitby, M., Pessoa-Silva, C., Mclaws, M., Allegranzi, B., Sax, H., Larson, E., Seto, W., Donaldson, L. & Pittet, D. (2007). Behavioural considerations for hand hygiene practices: the basic building blocks. Journal Of Hospital Infection, 65 (1), pp. 113-114. 1--8.
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
Patient’s personal hygiene is a vital part of the nurse’s role. Young (1991) described cleanliness as a basic human right, not a luxury the need for the patient to physically cleansing and which would include skin, hair and nails.
Access to improved water and adequate sanitation are essential to good health and socio-economic developments (Crow & Odaba, 2010). Sanitation refers to the hygienic management of human excreta through collection, disposal or reuse methods (Ujang & Henze, 2006). Studies have found human excretion as a primary mode of disease transmission, therefore improved sanitation facilities attempts to minimize human contact with excreta, thereby reducing the risk of transmission of potential pathogens (Kawata, 1978; WHO/UNICEF, 2012).
Excellent hygiene in nursing homes is a must. Residents that live there can easily get sick due to their medical condition, or they have a poor immune system. With all different types of bacteria and germs spread throughout a day, residents can be affected in a negative way. So with personal experience and some research, I am able to present to you the importance of hygiene of the residents' in nursing home care.