Hand Hygiene In Health And Social Care

The main principle of hand hygiene is to prevent the host from infection, by reducing the reservoir of infection (MedicineNet 2018). This is most commonly achieved through the process of hand sanitation using a soap or similar substance. Infection control aims to reduce the risk of transmission of an infectious disease by implementing procedures which aim to prevent or minimise the transmission. (University of Sydney 2017)

Hand hygiene is a term that refers to any action taken to clean hands. Hand hygiene can be accomplished by either using water and a soap or soap solution, either antimicrobial or non-antimicrobial or by using a waterless antimicrobial hand rub (Hand Hygiene Australia, 2017). For hand hygiene to be effective it is not just enough to sanitize a person’s hands the sanitation must be regular and specifically used after the person coming into contact with either infectious materials or unclean objects

(Hand Hygiene Australia 2017).
Hand hygiene is important regarding a hospital setting especially.

Due to people in a hospital having a lowered immune system and/or a portal of entry that the infectious agent can enter through, because of this it is important for healthcare staff to continuously sterilize their hands and keep up with good hand hygiene practices so that they reduce the risk of spreading infectious material to people who have an already weakened immune system. This is important because in a hospital there is a great reservoir of infection and any microbes present in a hospital environment are more likely to have a greater resistance to anti-microbials as they are constantly used. (Centres for Disease control and Prevention 2012)

To have an infection there first must be a reservoir for the infection. If the reservoir for the infectious agent is isolated, or is eradicated, then the infectious agent will not be able to spread (MedicineNet 2018). For an infection to occur there needs to be a problem that allows infection with either the: host, microbe of the

environment.
With concerns to the host, they must be susceptible to the infection, or have a portal of entry allowing the infectious agent to gain access to the host. Once inside the host, the infection either needs to be able to evade the hosts immunological defences or be resistant to treatment. Before either of these happen, the environment and conditions must be suitable for either the host to gain the infection or for the microbe to be able to infect the host. (Centres for Disease control and Prevention 2012)
One of the leading causes for the microbe to be able to infect the host is anti-microbial resistance. The problem of anti-microbial resistance is growing and is bringing an end to the older generations antibacterial substances. Because of the unnecessary frequent use of these substances bacteria are becoming more resistant. This is problematic as the use of these antibacterial substances producing more resistant bacteria allows infection to occur more easily as the bacteria is now stronger (Kumar, Curtis & Hoskins 2018 p.1-3).
The aim is to test the effectiveness of common physical approaches to infection control in hand washing and skin disinfection.