Essay Example on Hospital-Acquired Infections: A Danger to Patients?

A number of patients visit hospitals and come out of the hospitals having contracted other diseases that they did not even plan for (Malliarou et al., 2013). These diseases are commonly termed as the Health Acquired Infections or Diseases. Health acquired infections are extremely dangerous in the health care settings in which the patients are highly susceptible to diseases. The diseases are in most cases contracted by a patient after receiving or during treatment from the unrelated issue, and they could significantly impact on the Health of an individual Sickbert-(Bennett et al., 2016). Adequate precautions, as well as procedures, should, therefore, be implemented to help in the reduction of the cross-infection in the healthcare settings. In order to do so, the professionals must first understand the mechanism that the infection spread and implement the best strategies that can help in their reductions. One of the best strategies that can be applied to reduce the effect of Health acquired infections is the use of handwashing with soap and water or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. This essay, therefore, investigates the whether handwashing with soap and water or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer is more effective in controlling and preventing the Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) compared to no handwashing at all during their course of the hospital.

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There is evidence to show that handwashing with soap and water or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer is more effective in controlling the health-acquired infections. Having mastered the transfer mechanism of the microorganism, it is easier to come up with effective measures that can be used to prevent the spread of such diseases. In line with the microorganism, they can be spread through dirty hands or touching materials used by health providers with dirty hands or contaminated hands. It is important not to assume that the hands are clean by just looking at the hands since the microorganisms are too tiny to be seen with bare eyes.

Contaminated hands, therefore offer a very useful platform through which microorganisms can be transmitted, however, by cleaning hands appropriately using the appropriate methods can help in the prevention of the transfer of the microorganisms that can impact negatively on the patients.

Washing hands appropriately as well as help in the killing of the invisible microorganisms in the hands that can lead to infections. It is important to note that various activities in health care are done by the use of hands such s giving medicine. Therefore, the hands must be kept as clean as possible. How then can the hand be kept clean without thorough washing with water and soap or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer? Washing hands, therefore, contribute a lot to the healthy living and the control of acquired infections in the health care centre.

Many documents can be traced to have discussed various ways through which handwashing using the detergents can help in controlling the infections in the health centres. For instance, the health document that was produced by the World Health Organization requires that health providers, nurses, as well as the patients, use the five moments of hand washing. As a matter of fact, World Health Organization recommends that before coming in contact with any patients, nurses must ensure that they protect the patients against germ infections by washing their hands before offering any service to them.

To support handwashing strategy as a means of eliminating infections, the NMC code of conduct state that the nurses must be in a position to identify the risks and find the best possible way through which the risks can be reduced. The Health and Safety at work as well propose a very comprehensive technique that needs to be employed by when washing hands. They indicate that the water for washing the hands should be warm and detergents or alcohol sterilizer should be. Moreover, washing hands will help in reducing the transfer of diseases from one patient to another. Say, the nurse was dealing with a person suffering from cholera, and it will be possible that the contamination may transfer to another patient if the nurse does not wash the hands thoroughly.

It can, therefore, said that when operating in the hospital, all parties must ensure that they promote Health by maintaining hand hygiene (Ellingson et al., 2014). The hands must be washed thoroughly with water and soap or with alcohol sterilizer. Evidence support hand washing as a means that has helped in the reduction of Health acquired infections (Das, 2018). According to researchers, Health acquired infections are caused by dirty things that are touched. After touching without washing, offer other services using the hands affected, then there is a transfer of disease from one patient to another or even to the health provider (Altura-Visan et al., 2017). A significant percentage of infections has been reduced by the use of effective hand washing techniques, as outlined by various agencies. The researchers point out that in the hospital where the hand washing is not practised effectively, there are a lot of cases of infections reported compared to health care centres that put the practice to use.

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on the information provided, it can be concluded that handwashing with soap and water or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer more effective in preventing Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) compared to no handwashing at all (Assab & Temime, 2016). Washing hands with detergents or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer help in killing germs that may impact on the patients and result in the increased cases of the hospital-acquired infections.

References

Altura-Visan, F., Zakaria, A., Castro, J., Alhasanat, O., Al Ismail, K., Al Ansari, N., & Hamed, M. (2017). SWITCH: Al Wakra Hospital Journey to 90% Hand Hygiene Practice Compliance, 2011-2015. BMJ Open Quality, 6(1), u211699-w4824. https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/6/1/u211699.w4824?cpetoc=&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BMJ_Qual_Improv_Rep_TrendMD-1

Assab, R., & Temime, L. (2016). The role of hand hygiene in controlling norovirus spread in nursing homes. BMC infectious diseases, 16(1), 395.https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-016-1702-0

Das, S. (2018). Hospital Acquired Infection: Role of Hand Washing. Surgery & Case Studies: Open Access Journal, 1(4), 74-78. https://ideas.repec.org/a/abr/scsoaj/v1y2018i4p74-78.html

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Fox, C., Wavra, T., Drake, D. A., Mulligan, D., Bennett, Y. P., Nelson, C., ... & Bader, M. K. (2015). Use of a patient hand hygiene protocol to reduce hospital-acquired infections and improve nurses' hand washing. American Journal of Critical Care, 24(3), 216-224. http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/content/24/3/216.full.pdf+html

Haverstick, S., Goodrich, C., Freeman, R., James, S., Kullar, R., & Ahrens, M. (2017). Patients' hand washing and reducing hospital-acquired infection. Critical care nurse, 37(3), e1-e8. http://ccn.aacnjournals.org/content/37/3/e1.full.pdf+html

Malliarou, M., Zyga, S., Constantinidis, T. C., & Sarafis, P. (2013). The importance of nurses hand hygiene. https://ktisis.cut.ac.cy/handle/10488/4591

Mathur, P. (2016). Hand hygiene: back to the basics of infection control. The ndian journal of medical research, 134(5), 611. https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/21/12/973.short

McLaws, M. L. (2015). The relationship between hand hygiene and health care-associated infection: it's complicated. Infection and drug resistance, 8, 7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4319644/

Niyonzima, V., Brennaman, L., & Beinempaka, F. (2018). Practice and compliance of essential handwashing among healthcare workers at a regional referral hospital in Uganda: A quality improvement and evidence-based practice. Canadian Journal of Infection Control, 33(1), 33-38. https://ipac-canada.org/photos/custom/CJIC/IPAC_Spring2018_Niyonzima.pdf

Sickbert-Bennett, E. E., DiBiase, L. M., Willis, T. M. S., 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, 22(9), 1628. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4994356/

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