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Literature review about hand hygiene
Short discussion about proper handwashing techniques
Effects of hand hygiene in healthcare facilities
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Evaluation of Hand Hygiene Compliance and Knowledge
There is a reason that meticulous hand hygiene is a standard of care for all patients-it saves lives. Hand hygiene is basic task that has many benefits. It is common knowledge that hand hygiene is a “good” habit. Knowing that information, we must now explore how well nurses and other health care professionals are adhering to the standards of appropriate and effective hand hygiene practices.
Literature Review
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines hand hygiene as, “a general term that applies to routine hand washing, antiseptic hand wash, antiseptic hand rub, or surgical hand antisepsis.” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013) The idea of hand washing has been around for centuries. In the mid-1800’s Ignaz Semmelweis established that hospital-acquired diseases were transmitted via the hands of health care workers. After Semmelweis observed physicians and health care workers in the obstetric setting and studied mortality rates he recommended that hands be scrubbed in a chlorinated lime solution before coming in contact with every patient. Following the implementation of Semmelweis’s recommendation mortality rates associated with childbirth fell from seven percent to three percent. Although Semmelweis observation and recommendations were significant fellow physicians and colleagues did not adopt them. The 1980’s posed as a crucial time for health care in the sense of hand hygiene. This was when the first national hand hygiene guidelines were published in the 1980s. In 1995 and 1996, the CDC/Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) in the USA suggested that either antimicrobial soap or a waterless antiseptic agent be use...
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...inal research article had a limitation because only a small number of students were studied from only one university so it is unknown if the information can generally applied. Strength though was the detailed insight gained from the data because of the breakdown of questions. The data was able to analyze factors such as profession, age, and various other aspects. This type of collection provided a lot of data regarding students (Thea et al., 2011).
Conclusions and Future Studies
It is evident throughout these research studies that the topic of hand hygiene is particularly relevant to nursing. Nursing has the most face-to-face, hands on interactions with patients. Since nurses come in contact with multiple patients numerous times a day it is crucial that nurses have competent knowledge regarding hand hygiene in order to prevent the spread of infections and diseases.
Health tips. Hand hygiene. (2009). Mayo Clinic Health Letter (English Ed.), 27(12), 3. Retrieved from
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).
The researchers went through the proper channels to get permission to carry out a study using the students who volunteered to participate. The research was conducted using a variety of different survey methods that were chosen to determine the degree and/...
Feces, viruses, staph, Salmonella and hand-foot-mouth disease. These are just a few of the things that can be on our hands from normal daily living. With compromised immune systems, open wounds and other issues, these are very harmful. That is why it is so important to keep proper hand hygiene in mind at all times. Hospital infections affect almost two million people in the United States every year, 100,000 of whom die. Up to 70 percent of infections could be prevented if the health care workers follow recommended protocol (Michigan Health Lab, May 26, 2016). Nobody wants to know that when your food has
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 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...
World Health Organization. (2009). WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care: First Global Patient Safety Challenge Clean Care Is Safer Care. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK144041/
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
In those 64 years, surgeons made many discoveries that caused important advancements in the world of surgery. There were new ways of dealing with infection that also improved public health (Porter 110). These consisted of washing wounds with vinegar, wine, freshly voided urine, or boiled water, then cleaning the wound of foreign objects, then covered in a simple bandage meant it would heal without trouble (Magner 295). These ideas were discovered by Joseph Lister around 1865. Lister was the first to challenge the idea that infection of a wound was inevitable. He found that if a wound was covered in a clean lint dressing and soaked in linseed oil and carbolic then it would not get infected (Porter 231). This discovery was called antisepsis. However, his ideas were not widely accepted. In fact, many surgeons did not like the smell of carbolic, and other’s problems with this were the reason his teachings were not accepted by the American Surgical Association (Porter 231). Another example of the improvement of public health was handwashing. In earlier practices, surgeons did not wash their hands because it was not proven effective until after 1867, and would go from the morgue to laboring women which caused the infant and female mortality rates to increase (Williams). However, Lister also found handwashing helps prevent infection at the same time he discovered the wound dressing (Porter 231). So, during the Victorian era, hand
By basic measures like hand hygiene, human services related contamination (HCAIs), the expanding seriousness of the disease and complexity of treatment, superimposed by multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogen diseases, health care practitioners (HCPs) are turning around straightforward of contamination preventions in the wake of the developing burden of those. That enough logical confirmation supports the perception, hand hygiene alone can altogether to decrease the danger of cross-transmission of disease in health care facilities (HCFs) that if appropriately executed. Appropriate hand hygiene is the absolute most essential, easiest, and smallest costly method for lessening the frequency of HAIs, as well as the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Hand washing virtually to destroy the carriage of MRSA, which perpetually happens at the hands of HCPs working in ICUs according to a few studies. MRSA rates have been observed diminish by hand washing consistence. Even in settings with a high disease rate in fundamentally sick patients, the hand hygiene liaison assembles distinguished nine controlled concentrates, all of which demonstrated noteworthy decreases in contamination related results. Adherence to hand hygiene with the
Hand hygiene has always been considered a basic and yet, crucial measure for a qualified patient care. The article focuses on the importance of Hand hygiene in nursing and medical degree students since they also have direct contact with patients. The outcomes of the study showed that despite its importance in health environments, hand hygiene technique is not done correctly by many of the students. The article was very enlightening, it used a scientific language that was clear but not much complicated, except for the specific terms used in the methodology. As a nursing student, it was very helpful to learn that hand hygiene must be executed with no flaws and also, when not done properly, it can lead to dangerous consequences. Transmission of
Hand hygiene, when done correctly is the most effective technique to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. It prevents nosocomial infections and transmissions of bacteria from one patient to another (Carter 2002). Hand hygiene has been highlighted significantly by many public health committees as an important aspect of delivering good quality care in health care settings (Lankford,
“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
Smiddy, M. P., O ' Connell, R., & Creedon, S. A. (2015). Major article: Systematic qualitative literature review of health care workers ' compliance with hand hygiene guidelines. AJIC: American Journal Of Infection Control, 43269-274.
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.