Hand hygiene compliance rate being observed by IP nurses was around 57% and in the case of hospital volunteers, it was around 22%.
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The study conducted by Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) in San Jose, California stated that doctors and nurses do not follow proper hand hygiene if they are not being watched.
This matters a lot, even if there’s not an Ebola patient at the hospital.
But the aforementioned study suggests that doctors aren’t as mindful of their hand hygiene if they’re not being observed by someone with authority, than they are when they know someone is closely keeping an eye on them.
Hospitals are assumed to be the cleanest places possible, and the general public is usually comforted by the idea that the doctors, nurses and staff at hospitals, clinics and medical institutions always put hygiene first and wash their hands all the time. “As the study progressed, one pattern grabbed the researchers’ attention”, according to a news report published by ABC News.
According to Maricris Niles, an infection prevention specialist at SCVMC, “We noticed a very consistent trend that our Infection Prevention nurses were seeing something different than what volunteers were seeing”. Rates of compliance were measured at mid-point and after the final visit.
Could it be that compliance struck different observers in varying ways?
Therefore, Lisa Hansford, one of the IP nurses, underlined that providers and nurses were not using the alcohol to wash their hands. But if not then they would not use alcohol. The research team was shocked to know the massive gap. Scientists have said that healthcare workers might forget for a while that the place where they spend the most time of their day is a constant term environment, the study is a sort of reminder for them to retake hand hygiene practice as a priority. “Detroit hospital has come up with a way to make its staff abide by the rune and improve hand hygiene”, according to a news report published by SRJ News. “While we trust – nearly unquestioningly – that they maintain it, a recent hand hygiene study found that even doctors” hands are dirtier when no one is watching. Therefore, hand hygiene is one of the many life-long habits that every single one of us should have.
Photos of super-sized bacteria may prompt people to do a better job of washing their hands. Appealing to human emotions – like disgust – seems to have had a meaningful impact.
Therefore, considering the critical role hand hygiene play in the medical field, the scientific community as well as government agencies have carried out several researchers and campaigns to diminish the low rates of hand hygiene compliance. Part of their mission is to empower patients to hold healthcare workers accountable for cleaning their hands.
“If we can get the patients more involved in that – and get them to be able to speak up, that is really the main thing”, he said.
For example, with electronic monitoring, you lose the ability to give specific feedback on how individual workers can improve their practices. “My hope is that for younger clinicians when you pass [an alcohol] dispenser you feel amusing if you don’t hit it – like putting on a seat belt when you get in a vehicle”.
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After working on these issues for 16 years, Wright hopes to see a more robust culture shift in the near future.
