Translating Evidence Into Practice

The United Stated Department of Infectious Diseases estimated the incidence of hospital-acquired infections by 4.5% and with a 5% fatality in 2014 translating to a huge economic impacts (Al-Khawaldeh et al., 2015). One of the main contradictions is the fact that; despite the numerous hand washing guidelines that have been adopted by a majority of health facilities, the compliance by the health care providers remains low despite the practice being one of the simplest and most effective ways of preventing hospital-acquired infections (Bukhari et al., 2011). Some studies point of knowledge, attitude and practice as the primary factors affecting hand hygiene practices while other researches show that even if the healthcare workers from some developing countries would love to adopt best practices for hand hygiene, financial resources is a major factor (Bukhari et al., 2011; Pfoh, Dy, & Engineer, 2013)

In the recent past, studies in Croatia indicated that when it came to general hygiene especially hand washing when caring for patients at the health care centers most of the nurses and other health care providers did not meet the set of the World Health Organization (WHO) hygiene standards (Krleza et al., 2015). In addition, the inconsistent aseptic handling of capillary blood sampling especially dirty and infected hands reduced the chances of getting accurate analysis from the blood sample tests carried out (Krleza et al., 2015). Consequently, recommendations for promotion of hygiene are proposed by the researchers that include washing of the hands so as to reduce contamination of the blood samples that are collected.

Research also indicates that every year at least 290 000 surgical site infections are caused by the health care associated infections (Tsai & Caterson, 2014). Every year at least 1.7 million patients suffer tertiary infections that are as a result of health care associated infections. Furthermore, the results indicate that the health care system spends at least $45 billion every year on the treatment of surgical site infections that are caused due to health care associated infection (Tsai & Caterson, 2014). These statistics are staggering in terms of the amount of money that is spent on resultant infections that can easily prevented. Furthermore, hand washing is considered as one of the major causes of surgical site infections especially during post-operation health care provisions (Tsai & Caterson, 2014). Most of the health care officials are usually overwhelmed with the long hours of working shifts that some of the essential aseptic procedures are overlooked during caring for the patients’ wounds (Aiken, Karuri, Wanyoro, & Macleod, 2012).

According to Aiken et al (2012), most of the surgeries carried out in Sub- Saharan Africa are usually high risk because of the challenges that the health care providers face when it comes to maintenance of hygiene in the course of their work. Furthermore, the research indicated that some of the disinfectants that are to be used pre and post operation are not readily available given the high costs health centers incur when purchasing them (Kargupta et al., 2015). Alternatives such as alcohol and other aerosolized forms of disinfectants would be more appropriate in disinfecting the hands because they are readily available and are abundant in quantity. Therefore, it was suggested that the hospitals resort to using some of the cheap methods of disinfecting their instruments and well as using alcohol runs as hand wash given that it is cheap and it is readily available (Aiken et al., 2012). Furthermore, during post-operation care hygiene is paramount given that it hastens the recovery of patients and it further reduces their susceptibility to surgical site infections that are the key cause of some of the mortality cases witnessed in Sub Saharan Africa (Aiken et al., 2012)

Intravenous medication delivery has also been noted to suffer contamination especially given that some of the health care providers practice inconsistent aseptic techniques (Moureau & Flynn, 2015). Aseptic techniques include washing of the hands, disinfection of the needleless connectors, and use of anti-infective agents so as to reduce the risk of contamination; intravenous infections that have occurred as a result of contamination of the needleless connectors (Moureau & Flynn, 2015). The fact that the intravenous medication delivery is directly in contact with the veins of a person it increases the chance of infections that can be severe and in some cases fatal; therefore, it is important for consistent aseptic techniques to be carried out so as to ensure that the cases of contamination of intravenous medication delivery reduced to a minimum (Moureau & Flynn, 2015).

Preliminary Conclusions

This study has the primary objective of identifying and assessing the behaviors and factors affecting the practice of a simple intervention that is “hand hygiene” as practiced by healthcare practitioners (Davies, 2011). The study question is; does hand washing and appropriate staff dressing among the surgical ward nurses reduce cross infection during patient management? Research identifies the factors that motivate and those that affect the hand washing practice among health care providers (Davies, 2011). The gaps identified are meant to assist the healthcare management team and infection control units to develop appropriate measures for the implementation of hand washing policies and a translated reduction in the rates of hospital acquired infections (Davies, 2011).

summary

There is a need for strategies that emphasize or remind the health care practitioners about hand washing; these include pinning of charts about hand washing at strategic points, provision of sufficient hand hygiene products, periodic classes on hand washing and an introduction of penalties for non-compliance.

References

Aiken, A. M., Karuri, D. M., Wanyoro, A. K., & Macleod, J. (2012). Interventional studies for preventing surgical site infections in sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Surgery, 242-249. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2012.04.004

Al-Khawaldeh, O., Al-Hussami, M., & Darawad, M. (2015). Influence of Nursing Students Handwashing Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes on Their Handwashing Compliance. Scientific Research Publishing. Doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.4236/health.2015.75068 

Bukhari, S., Hussain, W., Banjar, A., Almaimani, W., Karima, T., & Fatani, M. (2011). Hand hygiene compliance rate among healthcare professionals. PubMed - NCBI. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 1 April 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21556474