The importance of Hand Hygiene by healthcare providers in hospital environment
Washing hands properly is one of the most important things to help prevent and control the spread of many illnesses in the hospital environment. Good hand hygiene will reduce the risk of things like flu, food poisoning and healthcare associated infections being
passed from person to person.
Hand hygiene in a hospital environment is an essential factor in maintaining the health
and safety of the staff as well as patients. According to data reviewed by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention:
Research shows that washing hands with soap and water could reduce deaths from
diarrheal disease by up to 50% .
Researchers estimate that if everyone routinely washed their hands, 1 million deaths
a year could be prevented.
A large percentage of foodborne disease outbreaks are spread by contaminated
hands.
Handwashing can reduce the risk of foodborne illness and other infection.
Handwashing can reduce the risk of respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general
population by 16-21% .
The use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in U.S. classrooms reduced absenteeism
due to infection by about 20% overall among 16 elementary schools and 6,000 students.
Handwashing education in the community:
Reduces diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%.
Reduces absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29–57%.
There are four types of hand hygiene:
Social Hand Hygiene- Routine Hand Washing. The aim of social (routine) hand washing with soap and warm water is to remove dirt and organic material, dead skin and most
transient organisms, antiseptic hand hygiene and surgical Hand Hygiene.
Considering that in the hospital facilities healthcare professionals have contact with
infected people and also possibly infected materials, it is necessary to strengthen
hygiene habits to ensure minimization of risks. Therefore, hygiene should be done
regularly at five different and essential times:
Before touching a patient, before a procedure, after a procedure or body fluid
exposure risk, after touching a patient's surroundings.
Respecting these 5 steps ensures that the health care professional as well as the
patient are safe, and the risks of exposure to possible infections are minimized, thus
ensuring the reduction of contamination and endemics both in the hospital environment
and the exposure of other patients treated by the same nurse.
To ensure that the hygiene of the hands is done correctly and effectively it is necessary to rub them for at least 15 seconds, taking care at specific points, such as the thumbs
and palm of the hands.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a campaign to raise
awareness of the importance of frequent hand hygienization in the workplace.
The “Clean Hands Save” campaign aims to improve healthcare provider adherence to
hand hygiene recommendations, address myths and misperceptions about hand
hygiene, and empower patients to play a role in their care by asking or reminding
healthcare providers to clean their hands.
Healthcare providers might need to clean their hands as many as 100 times per 12hour shift, depending on the number of patients and intensity of care.
Everyone should know the truth about hand hygiene and alcohol-based hand sanitizer: Alcohol-based hand sanitizer kills most of the bad germs that make you sick and is
the preferred way to clean your hands in healthcare settings.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer does not kill C. difficile, a common healthcare-associated infection that causes severe diarrhea. Patients with C. difficile should wash their
hands with soap and water and make sure their healthcare providers always wear gloves
when caring for them.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is more effective and less drying than using soap and
water, and does not create antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Hand hygiene should be a topic of conversation between healthcare providers and patients. Healthcare providers can explain how and why they clean their hands before, after, and sometimes during patient care, and let patients know it’s ok to ask about hand
hygiene.
Patients can protect themselves by cleaning their own hands and asking visitors to do
so.
It is also necessary for hospital institutions to have favourable conditions for their staff
to be able to maintain hand hygiene throughout their service. Developing encouragement
campaigns, awareness lectures and appropriate material for frequent hand hygiene are
some points that collaborate to mobilize professionals.
Healthcare facilities should:
Require healthcare personnel to perform hand hygiene in accordance with Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations
Ensure that healthcare personnel perform hand hygiene with soap and water when
hands are visibly soiled
Ensure that supplies necessary for adherence to hand hygiene are readily accessible
in all areas where patient care is being delivered.
We can then conclude that the favourable conditions for healthcare providers to have
adequate hand hygiene during their period of work is the responsibility of the hospital, but
it is also necessary for them to be aware of the importance of hand hygiene and the risks
involved in the lack of it, both for themselves and for others.
We can also say that, the lack of adequate hygiene can lead to contamination by
germs, viruses and bacteria causing various pathologies, especially in the hospital environment, where diseases are present on a larger scale, and may result in a higher risk of
contamination from one patient to another, when the hygiene of the healthcare provoider's hands is inappropriate.
Therefore, it is correct to state that hand hygiene from healthcare providers, patients
and their visitors is an effective way to prevent contamination in the hospital environment.
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