Hand Hygiene Compliance in Health Care Workers - Research Paper Example

Innovation is the introduction of something new in order to make changes or modifications (Chambers Paperback Dictionary, 1999).
As such, hand hygiene compliance in health care workers is vital to the reduction of infection within any kind of health care setting. It is motivating to make an observation on this particular issue because while there may be guidelines and new products (alcohol-based hand rubs/ABHRs) to affect such practices in clinics and hospitals; professional health care workers are said to be the common starting point of nosocomial infections that abound within the actual health care situation because most of them do not conform with proper sanitation, degerming and hand washing.
Hand sanitation, as per research and studies, confirms a decrease of pathogenic agents that propagate nosocomial infections and complications in patients who are confined in hospitals (Elridge et al 2006). The fundamental conclusion that arises from relevant hospital-acquired infection researches as issued by the CDC were: “1) the hands of health care workers are regularly contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms; and “2) the hands of health care workers are a major route of transmission of pathogens throughout the hospital environment and from the body of one patient to another (Elridge et al 2006).”
Thus, it is recommended by the 2002 CDC Guideline that alcohol-based hand rubs or ABHRs are more effective to use in dispensing pathogenic microbes; and are quicker to use than the traditional soap and water without the usual side effect of having dermatitis (Elridge et al 2006).
The understanding of the health care staff workers especially in critical units of the hospital like the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), with regards to the essence of hand hygiene practice, is significant as this is the best or one of the best ways to manage and avert contaminations which are normally present and related to health care (Cohen et al 2003). It must be clearly understood that newborns within the said unit can contract a high degree of infections due to their very delicate immune systems, which are not yet highly developed (Cohen et al 2003). The common transmission for the infection occurs after hand contact is established with “environmental surfaces and patient equipment” or the removal of gloves that generally happens prior to the performance of invasive procedures (Cohen et al 2003).
In relation to the above circumstance, a guideline has been given out by the CDC on how proper handwashing should be done prior to any hands-on contact with patients that are critically ill or otherwise. But while the CDC Hand Hygiene Guideline has been mandated; Read More