Hand Hygiene Practices and Compliance Rates from Medical Professionals - Research Proposal Example

Re-Educating Healthcare Providers on Hand Hygiene Practice Re-Educating Healthcare Providers on Hand Hygiene Practice Search Strategy This study is based on data gathered from electronic sources collected from various online medical databases and libraries such as CINAHL, AVID, IHI and Medline. The search terms that were used in identifying the most relevant articles include hand hygiene, hand hygiene compliance, Hospital Acquired Infections, hand hygiene reeducation, and hygiene practices. Several articles came up in the searches, but only ten articles made the cut for this particular project. The articles that were selected for this project were selected based on their dates of publication and relevance to the topic in relation to the situation in Canada and the US. The articles provide a clear background to the topic as well as exploring the different issues associated with hand hygiene reeducation and hospital acquired infections. Of the ten articles identified, two of them were qualitative studies on hand hygiene practices and compliance rates, five were qualitative studies, and two were literature reviews, while one was an anecdotal paper. All the articles selected relate to the state of hand hygiene compliance in Canada and the US and are dated between 2009 and 2014 in order to provide the most updated and recent outlook on hand hygiene practices and compliance rates. The articles also covered a wide range of themes related to the topic, including hand hygiene practices, compliance, managing hospital-acquired infections, reeducation as a strategy of increasing compliance rates, and the impacts of noncompliance to hand hygiene practices. The articles cover both specific and general literature. Five of the articles are of a general; nature on the topic while the other five are very specific to the topic. General literature discusses hand hygiene and compliance in general while specific literature assesses the impact of reeducation inn increasing hand hygiene compliance rates. From a general point of view, the articles selected for this literature review are very effective in addressing the topic from different perspectives. Specific Literature The literature study indicates that there is a string connection between hand hygiene reeducation among healthcare providers and high compliance rates. Therefore, there is considerable support for reeducating healthcare providers on hand hygiene practice. This literature review examines the impact of reeducating healthcare providers on hand hygiene practices in improving delivery of healthcare to patients. Chavali, Menon, & Shukla, (2014) posit that there is a strong connection between hand hygiene practices and reduction in hospital acquired infections. Strict adherence to hand hygiene practices can improve delivery of healthcare outcome s to patients in very many ways. This will make hospitals and other healthcare facilities much safer for both patients and healthcare providers. Nevertheless, research shows that there are very low rates of compliance to hand hygiene among healthcare providers (Chavali, et al., 2014). One way proposed to increased compliance rates is through reeducation among healthcare providers in order to reinvigorate their knowledge on hand hygiene and help equip them with the latest strategies and techniques for compliance. According to Ford, Boyer, Menachemi, & Huerta (2014) reeducation of healthcare providers will go a long way in increasing compliance rates for hand hygiene. Most healthcare providers underestimate the importance of hand hygiene because it has not been emphasized enough for a long time. Consequently, many nurses do not have sufficient knowledge and resources to facilitate their compliance. Therefore, reeducation will help in underscoring the significance of hand hygiene compliance in improved healthcare delivery (Ford, et al., 2014). Gould, D., & Drey (2013) state that reeducation programs must be tailored to the needs of patients and the healthcare providers. Patients deserve to be protected from any preventable diseases while undergoing treatment in hospitals. Similarly, healthcare providers need to have a conducive working environment. Therefore reeducation should be geared towards facilitating healthcare providers in their work as well as creating a good environment for both patients and nurses in achieving healthcare outcomes (Monistrol, et al., 2012). According to Jayaraman et al., (2014), reeducation will improve the precision and accuracy. This is because reeducation programs will take into account several issues and challenges affecting delivery of healthcare. The programs will also emphasize on the role of technology in identifying and addressing hospital acquired infections among patents. This will help- reduce the numbers of unnecessary deaths of patients undergoing treatment in hospital. This will in turn improve the delivery of healthcare services. Similarly, Maskerine & Loeb (2009) acknowledge that there is a strong connection between reeducating or healthcare providers and increased compliance to hand hygiene practices. In a study the authors conducted, it was identified that most nurses were not aware of the significance of hand hygiene practices such as hand hygiene washing. The nurses were not familiar with many issues related to hand hygiene including the role of hand hygiene in limiting the spread of hospital acquired infections. The authors concluded that reeducation or training of these nurses can enhance their understanding of the scope and role of hand hygiene practices in delivering healthcare outcomes and therefore facilitate their compliance. General Literature Reeducation of healthcare providers will also go a long way in improving the financial aspect of healthcare management. Healthcare costs reportedly shoot up to 16 billion if hand hygiene is not complied with, and most of the costs involved in treating patients who stay longer in the hospital after contracting. Compliance is vital for measuring the rates of success of the various healthcare interventions that patients receive (Mathai, Allegranzi, Kilpatrick, & Pittet, 2010). Reeducation of healthcare providers will help to bring more attention on these statistics and device appropriate mechanisms of resolving any discrepancies. For instance, nurse will be taught how to prevent further of diseases through simple acts such as hand washing or gelling. This well reduce the costs involved in treatment as no further costs will be incurred in treating hospital acquired infections (Randle, Firth, & Vaughan, 2013). Reeducation will equip nurse managers with adequate skills in financial management to be able to control the amounts of money being spent in the health sector treating preventable diseases, including hospital acquired infections. Thorough and proper hand hygiene is one of the most significant practices, which helps in eliminating cross-contamination and reducing incidences of hospital-acquired infections (Wilson, Jacob, & Powell, 2011). However, compliance with hand hygiene has always been low historically with the average compliance rate at only 39 percent (Wilson, et al., 2011). Reeducation will help to increase compliance rates because it will help nurses and other healthcare providers to access relevant resources for improving healthcare delivery outcomes (Scheithauer, et al., 2013). References Chavali, S., Menon, V., & Shukla, U. (2014). Hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers in an accredited tertiary care hospital. Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, 18(10), 689-693. Ford, E. W., Boyer, B. T., Menachemi, N., & Huerta, T. R. (2014). Increasing Hand Washing Compliance with a Simple Visual Cue. American Journal of Public Health, 104(10), 1851-1856. Gould, D., & Drey, N. (2013). Types of interventions used to improve hand hygiene compliance and prevent healthcare associated infection. Journal of Infection Prevention, 14(3), 88-93. Jayaraman, S. P., Klompas, M., Bascom, M., Liu, X., Piszcz, R., Rogers, S. O., & Askari, R. (2014). Hand-Hygiene Compliance Does Not Predict Rates of Resistant Infections in Critically Ill Surgical Patients. Surgical Infections, 15(5), 533-539. Maskerine, C., & Loeb, M. (2009). Improving adherence to hand hygiene among health care workers. Journal of Continuing Education In The Health Professions, 26(3), 244-251. Mathai, E., Allegranzi, B., Kilpatrick, C., & Pittet, D. (2010). Prevention and control of health care-associated infections through improved hand hygiene. Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology, 28(2), 100-106. Monistrol, O., Calbo, E., Riera, M., Nicolás, C., Font, R., Freixas, N., & Garau, J. (2012). Impact of a hand hygiene educational programme on hospital-acquired infections in medical wards. Clinical Microbiology & Infection, 18(12), 1212-1218. Randle, J., Firth, J., & Vaughan, N. (2013). An observational study of hand hygiene compliance in paediatric wards. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 22(17/18), 2586-2592. Scheithauer, S., Kamerseder, V., Petersen, P., Brokmann, J. C., Lopez-Gonzalez, L., Mach, C., & ... Lemmen, S. W. (2013). Improving hand hygiene compliance in the emergency department: getting to the point. BMC Infectious Diseases, 13(1), 1-6. Wilson, S., Jacob, C. J., & Powell, D. (2011). Behavior-change interventions to improve hand-hygiene practice: a review of alternatives to education. Critical Public Health, 21(1), 119-127. Read More