Grand Canyon University
OT Statement Paper
Infection Control
Nnenna Nwagbo
Grand Canyon University
NRS-490-0502-Professional Capstone and Practicum
12-15-2019
Picot Statement
Hand hygiene in hospitals prevents cross-infection. The observation and hygiene of the hands by health workers in order to prevent cross-border infections is extremely important many health facilities also face major problems due to poor adherence with many of these strategies and guidelines for improving hand hygiene, through the introduction of large hospital services. Therefore, it is very important to maintain hand hygiene in order to prevent and reduce cross infections. This paper addresses challenges found in the area of hand hygiene, as well as possible actions and remedies by formulating, problem, intervention comparison, outcome, time and length (PICOT).
Problem
The main issue that other issues focus has been identified as health workers. For a variety of reasons, health workers do not value manual grooming. One problem identified is that though education has been provided, Lack of integration between theory and practice is a major factor and also environmental factors such as work load, availability of resources and convenience of those resources affect learning or adhering and practice outcomes (Mortell, M., 2012). Health care providers must find that manual hygiene is suitable for their work and must be aware that non-compliance increases patient morbidity, disease and costly health care. There may be resources available to health workers in all medical areas, but the necessary and expected adherence with hand hygiene is not yet accomplished. Another issue that is easily ignored is lack of knowledge or experience of environmental contamination (Beggs, Knibbs, Johnson & Morawska, 2015).
Intervention
Safe environment is very essential for the care and treatment of patients, since it decreases the occurrence of HAIs. It promotes the protection of patients and prevention of diseases (Aziz, A., 2014). Several steps must be taken in order to interfere. Such phases include preparation, leadership and assistance (Role Model), recognizing threats and implementing mitigating approaches, promoting staff recording of incidents, motivating staff to engage on safety issues and also providing safe patient outcomes to both patients and employees. A well-designed hand hygiene plan for all health care workers must be in operation and track better grooming of their own hands as the pursuit would contribute to a large reduction of acquired hospital infections (Sick-Bennett, DiBiase, Willis, Wolak, Weber, & Rutala, 2016).
Comparison
The study was conducted for two days, and the participants were not asked how better information could be obtained. For analysis, three medical areas have been established. One area was area one which was patients ‘ fast pace, the other area was the triage area and the third was the usual area where patients ‘ procedures and admissions were carried out. The participants featured senior nurses (more than 5 years, senior doctors and newly-embarked nurses who were 1-2 years old. Before and after the patients were treated all the workers were tracked. The personnel were also tracked during the procedures and the senior doctors were tested. This was registered to make a comparison. The findings were that the 5 periods of hand hygiene involved clean hands before and after a patient was handled, clean hands before and after the procedure and also clean hands while touching the area. Three out of five senior nurses did not clean their hands before any procedures and before the patients were touched. Senior doctors who did not stick to hand washing until contacting clients were the worst performers. Workload was an important factor for the washing of hands. Better compliance was seen in the zone with fewer patients. Staffs were not informed of the observation because if informed prior to the observation, they would have behaved differently (Winship, & McClunie-Trust, 2016).
Outcomes
A strong source for the research was consistent hand hygiene monitoring and reporting. It was evident that the fields with the best resources were complied with, the ability to practice hand sanitation and good patient care were increased in area with less workload. When activities are not overwhelmed by health workers, clients are better taken care of and the healthcare system was also more successful. Personal input on efficiency was given, and that optimization of operational procedures seemed to be a fruitful way of enhancing adherence with hand hygiene while growing workload, while improving quality care and outcomes. (Scheithauer, Kamerseder, Petersen, Brokmann, Lopez-Gonzalez, Mach Schulze-Robbecke &Lemmen, 2013).
Timing
Hand hygiene training must be a regular practice and reassessment. The people identified in this study have been retrained and will be followed up in approximately two weeks to ensure that all the personnel are educated and that the education is integrated as acknowledgement, introduction, duration, explanation and thanks to patients (AIDET) included to all health care providers in this facility.
CONCLUSION
All health care workers must receive education on the value of hand hygiene, which should not be a one-time activity, but a regular learning and re-assessment of adherence and supervision in order to ensure enforcement of all health workers. Regular evaluations and practical documentation are needed to identify the largest barrier to compliance with hand hygiene.
References
Aziz, Ann-Marie, (2014). Hand Hygiene Compliance for Patient Safety. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 20 (9)
Beggs, C., Knibbs, L. D., Johnson, G.R., Morawska, L. (2015). Environmental Contamination and Hospital-Acquired Infection: Factors that are easily overlooked. Indoor Air, 25: 462-474, DOI: 10.111/ina.12170
Mortell, M. (2012). Infection Control, Hand Hygiene Compliance: is there a theory-practice-ethics gap? British Journal of Nursing, 21(17) p. 1011-1014
Sickbert-Bennett, E.E., DiBiase, L. M., Schade Willis, T. M., Wolak, E. S., Weber, D. J., & Rutala, W. A., (2016). Reduction of Healthcare-Associated Infections by Exceeding High Compliance with Hand Hygiene Practices: Emerging Infectious Diseases. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/eid. 22
Scheithauer, S., Kamersedre, V., Petersen, P., Brokmann, J C., Lopez-Gonzalez, L-A., Mach, C., Schulze-Robbecke, R., & Lemmen, S W., (2013). Improving Hand Hygiene Compliance in the Emergency Department: getting to the point. BioMed Central Infectious Diseases, 13: 367. Retrieved from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/13/367
Winship, S., & McClunie-Trust, P. (2016). Factors Influencing Hand Hygiene Compliance Among Nurses: An Integrative Review, Koi Tioki Nursing Research, 7(1)
