Poor Hand Washing Practice by Health Care Providers - Essay Example

The debate suggests that washing hands by health care providers might not be the primary way to prevent the spread of disease however, due to the results that do show that these prevent the speared of disease, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued through recommendations promoting hand washing by health care providers (Lucking, Maffei, Tamburro & Thomas, 2012).

Having highlighted how important it is to wash hands, the adherence to hand-washing guidelines by healthcare providers and especially by physicians is notoriously poor (Lucking, Maffei, Tamburro & Thomas, 2012).  

For this research paper, evidence from Chengdu, China is looked at, where 6 hospitals were observed for hand washing adherence. Doctors and nurses were asked about their hand-washing practice and observations are recorded. Surprisingly out of 1535 activities where hand hygiene is considered necessary, only about 17.8% of the time the healthcare providers complied with hand washing safety standards (Han, Dou, Zhang & Zhou, 2011). These results don’t reflect the situation in the US however this is an eye-opener as to what can be expected in case there is no scrutiny regarding hygiene.

Speaking of the overall situation of hand hygiene, in practice, it is only observed half of the time it is required for patient care (Carayon, 2011). And interestingly, healthcare providers have their reasons for not completely adhering to hygiene practices; less number of sinks, soap causing irritation or dryness, less number of paper towels and soap, and wastage of time as they are too busy with patients, they even complain about faucets and sinks being located at odd places (Carayon, 2011).

This complaint from nurses of not having enough time to pay attention to their hand hygiene is also endorsed by Lautenbach, Woeltje & Malani (2010), who showed that lack of hand hygiene in hospitals was the major cause of transmission pathogens. Poor adherence to hand hygiene by healthcare workers (HCWs) suggested that they didn’t have enough time to wash their hands as frequently or as thoroughly as required (Lautenbach, Woeltje & Malani, 2010). 

Time is of significant importance in hand hygiene. The complaints regarding the insufficiency of time by nurses and doctors are no doubt grounded in reality. However, to take care of this issue many suggestions have also been proposed. With the proper support from the administration of hospitals and advice from HCWs, there can be a significant improvement in hand hygiene practices. For instance, according to observations, it takes about 62 seconds on average for a nurse to get up from the patient’s bedside and go to the sink, wash and dry hands properly (Lautenbach, Woeltje & Malani, 2010).

In contrast, if hand sanitizers are provided right beside the patient’s bed this time can be significantly reduced.