Hand hygiene is the single most effective tool in preventing the spread of many infections from person to person. And as described by many healthcare workers that washing hands can reduce a lot of diseases but studies show that healthcare workers are only compliant approximately 50 % of the time. There are many reasons healthcare workers give for not being able to a complaint.
As healthcare workers claimed that they faced a barrier of limited resources, so I think this could be an appropriate reason because if the dispensers are not always occupied with sanitizers or soaps and sinks are not located in suitable places, the well-intentioned workers will have difficulty obeying with hand hygiene practices all the time. So to address this issue, the organization should create a process to determine sanitizers and soap dispensers are always filled and effortlessly accessible (Bischoff et al.). Healthcare leaders should ask staff members about their satisfaction with the products of hand hygiene. Leaders should look into alternatives if a type of soap dries or irritates the skin of employees to make hand hygiene compliance easier.
Healthcare workers cite another reason for not compliance with hand hygiene is due to the lack of time (Voss and Widmer). The problem is certainly not a shortage of posters reminding workers to wash their hands. For decades these signs have been hanging in hospitals. And I think this could not be an appropriate reason given by healthcare worker because it just takes a minute or seconds to wash hands properly. This issue could be due to the waste in the process, the organization should learn techniques and methods to increase efficiency and eliminate waste from the process. Eliminating unnecessary steps frees up staff’s time to wash their hands. We should not blame individuals in this approach, we focus on the system. To address this problem or time constraints, another strategy should be providing incentives for meeting hand hygiene goals.
Works Cited
Bischoff, Werner E., et al. “Handwashing Compliance by Health Care Workers: The Impact of Introducing an Accessible, Alcohol-Based Hand Antiseptic.” Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 160, no. 7, 2000, pp. 1017–21.
Voss, Andreas, and Andreas F. Widmer. “No Time for Handwashing!? Handwashing versus Alcoholic Rub Can We Afford 100% Compliance?” Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, vol. 18, no. 3, 1997, pp. 205–08.
