Edited by Ayodele Nwosu
Published on August 27th, 2014
The profession of nursing requires us to be compassionate, allows us to participate in someone else’s healing and summons us to educate and assist in the prevention of illnesses. This field requires us to be cautious in every interaction that we have with patients. Being careful when treating patients is necessary for their protection as well as our protection. As a result, nurses are taught different protocols which must be followed in patient care. The issue that I believe is most important in nursing today is infection prevention and control; primarily hand hygiene.
Hand hygiene provides defense against the spread of pathogens in medical facilities. However, compliance rates for hand washing, or the use of an alcohol based hand rub to cleanse hands and prevent the spread of infection has been reported as being below 50 percent. Hand hygiene is a simple task that is crucial in fighting infection and the spreading of diseases, but healthcare workers have not been diligent in following the proper procedure for hand hygiene. This is extremely troubling since our number one protection against passing on germs and diseases is the all-important yet simple task of taking the time to properly cleanse hands.
A lack of commitment from medical institutions is one of the reasons hand hygiene compliance is low. With no consequences for non-compliance healthcare professionals sometimes neglect this essential step. This results in the passing of germs from surfaces to patients, patient-to-patient or even passing germs to our family members at home. In the same manner in which nurses are held accountable in other areas of their patient’s care, they should also be monitored and disciplined when proper hand hygiene is not practiced.
Nurses should be educated and evaluated on their knowledge of basic hand hygiene and sanctions should be put in place for non-compliance. Possible ways to educate nurses include video presentations, online courses, power point presentations and infection control seminars. Nurses should be given examples of how infection has been spread by poor hand hygiene, should be required to watch and demonstrate proper hand hygiene and should be held accountable. It is also important that healthcare facilities support nurses with the tools that they need in order for them to easily cleanse their hands. Sinks should be stocked with soap and paper towels at all times, and a water supply should always be available. Hand sanitizer stations should also be placed in areas that are visible, and easily accessible to nurses such as close to the point of patient contact. These stations should be checked regularly and the alcohol based hand gel should be replaced when needed. In order to get nurses invested in the process of accountability they should be encouraged to remind each other when necessary, and they could also be given monitoring duties to check the different hand washing and hand sanitizing stations.
In an effort to reduce patient infection it is important that nurses utilize all available tools to combat passing pathogens to patients. The most important tool we have to fight against patient infection is hand hygiene. Compliance for hand hygiene in medical facilities is below the required percentage. In an effort to improve patient care, protect staff, patients and their families it is important that we encourage nurses to play their part in preventing patient infection. Hand hygiene is most important in nursing today because it is a simple step that can lower patient mortality. By supporting and educating nurses on the importance of hand hygiene, and the ever-present possibility of infection we will be able to provide better care to our patients, and will increase the protection we have for ourselves as healthcare workers.